[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 2 (Thursday, January 4, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S54-S55]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        THE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

  Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, we have heard some very interesting 
comments by the Senator from Mississippi, the Senator from Maryland, 
and the Senator from Massachusetts, debating what the provisions of the 
Federal 

[[Page S55]]
budget should be. Each Senator has his own views. That is a very 
important debate. I personally fall on the side of the Senator from 
Maryland and the Senator from Massachusetts, in saying this budget 
proposed by the Republican majority is unfair. It creates too much of a 
burden on middle-income people, on low-income people, and shifts the 
benefit to the most wealthy. It is just basically unfair. But, Mr. 
President, I stand here to address another issue.
  While we are here debating what the provisions of the Federal budget 
should be, many--tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of 
innocent Americans--are suffering because the Government is shut down 
and because innocent Americans, whether they are working for the 
Federal Government or not, are bearing the brunt of this shutdown. It 
is wrong. It is absolutely wrong. We should put people back to work.
  The burden of this debate should not fall on innocent Americans, and 
it is now falling on innocent Americans because the House majority and 
the Speaker of the House are in a willful band over there and are not 
letting American Federal employees go back to work.
  It is a very interesting debate we have heard from the Senator from 
Mississippi, the Senator from Massachusetts, and the Senator from 
Maryland. It is very interesting. Let us have this debate. Let us work 
on the budget. Let us work on the provisions. But, in the meantime, let 
us put Americans back to work, and let us take the burden off of 
innocent Americans.
  Today, once again, most of the employees of the Forest Service, the 
Bureau of Land Management, the VA hospitals, the State Department, and 
many other parts of our Government will stay home and the rest will 
work without pay.
  Small businesses will go without Government contracts as their rent 
and utility bills are coming due.
  People on Indian reservations will have to go without heating 
assistance money as a blizzard now sweeps across the Great Plains 
during the coldest weeks of the year.
  Gas stations in rural areas that depend on their customers in the 
Forest Service will lose more of their business.
  Families will lose there housing deposits. Why? Because the VA cannot 
process home loans.
  I am here to say that it is an outrage. I spent last Monday walking 
down Route I-94 through Miles City, close to where you, Mr. President, 
reside. That is the State you represent. I heard from people who do not 
know how they will pay their heating bills, and others who had counted 
on a day snowmobiling in Yellowstone National Park. I have heard the 
same outrage from people in our State who are unable to go snowmobiling 
in Yellowstone National Park. Excuse my language, but they are mad as 
hell, and they are right to be mad as hell.
  Listen to a letter I got last week from a fellow who works in the 
park.

       I work here in Yellowstone National park in the fleet 
     Maintenance Division as a mechanic. The job I currently hold 
     has been the best one I've ever held. I've held this 
     permanent position since the 25th of September, 1989. As you 
     very well know, the National Park Service is currently in the 
     middle of the budget crisis. This stalemate has got to stop 
     now, due to the fact that the main concessionaire, TW 
     Recreational Services, has been considering shutting the 
     season down because they cannot maintain the number of 
     employees to wait out this ``Mexican Standoff'' and may have 
     to abandon the rest of the season.
       Not only that, the gateway communities of the Park are 
     currently losing capital and are trying to survive the lost 
     income all because you people decided to ``flex'' your muscle 
     and keep the National Park Service shut down.

  Now hear an e-mail I received just this morning from a woman who 
works in Hamilton:

       As a non-tenured, furloughed staff scientist at the Rocky 
     Mountain Labs, NIH, Hamilton Montana, I am feeling this quite 
     acutely, both financially and professionally.

  Or listen to the folks at the Gardiner Chamber of Commerce:

       Gardiner is the north entrance to Yellowstone Park. The 
     economy is almost entirely dependent on visitors to 
     Yellowstone. With Yellowstone closed the last three weeks, 
     the cost to our small community of 1,500 is not less than 
     $1.5 million in private sector gross receipts.

  Mr. President, you heard that right. Since last December, Gardiner 
has lost $1,000 for every single resident--innocent people, while we 
here debate. It is wrong.
  Mr. President, it is an outrage. Whatever one's views on the budget, 
it is wrong and has to stop. It is wrong that innocent people suffer, 
whether they are furloughed Federal employees or other Americans who 
feel the brunt of it, while we in the Congress debate the budget.
  I want to commend our majority leader for doing what is right and 
getting the Senate to do its part by passing a bill to keep the 
Government open. That was a tough decision. He has been roundly 
criticized for it. But it was the right thing to do.
  Now it is up to Speaker Gingrich and the House. Up to now, they have 
flat-out refused to do what is right. They have flat-out refused to 
take the burden off of innocent Americans. They are the holdouts. 
Yesterday, they voted to keep hurting the small businesses outside 
Yellowstone, keep the people on the Fort Peck Reservation and our other 
reservations waiting for their heating assistance, keep people at home 
or working without pay.
  Why did they do it? Well, they have ideas that they want the 
President to accept on the budget. Maybe they believe they get some 
leverage over the President with this, or think they have some 
political advantage when all of this is ended. That might be so. I have 
ideas that I would like the President to accept on the budget, too. But 
I am not going to punish innocent people just because I want my views 
adopted.
  The fact is, you should not do things that you know are wrong. It is 
that simple. It is the very first moral lesson we learn as children. 
You should not do things you know are wrong.
  You should not make families on the Fort Peck Reservation go without 
heating in the coldest part of winter.
  You should not threaten the jobs of auto mechanics and scientific 
researchers.
  You should not threaten to make small businesses close their doors 
because they have no money to pay the rent.
  You should not hurt innocent, hard-working people.
  So I have come down here to the floor, Mr. President, just to say to 
the Speaker and to the folks in the House, do what you know is right. 
Pass the resolution. Put folks back to work. Take the burden off of 
them so that we in both Houses of Congress, along with the President, 
can do the Nation's work and pass the 7-year balanced budget 
resolution.
  Let us debate the provisions of it, but let us not in the meantime 
put the burden on innocent Americans. Mr. Speaker, and all of the 
Republicans in the House, I urge you to do what you know is right. Pass 
the resolution and put the people back to work.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  Mr. SARBANES addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.

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