[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 3 (Friday, January 5, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H308]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    STOP PUNISHING FEDERAL EMPLOYEES

  (Mr. DeFAZIO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, we have made a little progress here today. 
We can balance the budget of the Federal Government in 7 years; we can 
bring fiscal responsibility to Washington, DC. I myself have drawn up a 
detailed budget. It is going to require some tough choices.
  But, Mr. Speaker, we are going to have to abandon goodies like huge 
tax cuts. We are going to have to go after corporate welfare and 
subsidies. We are going to have to reduce agriculture subsidies. We are 
going to have to go after the sacrosanct Pentagon and eliminate useless 
weapons like the B-2 bomber and star wars.
  There are a number of other places where tough choices are going to 
have to be made. But in order to get there, we do not need to punish 
Federal employees and their families. We should stop doing that.
  Mr. Speaker, we have made some progress on that today with a 
temporary resolution to put people back to work. There is a question of 
whether or not those employees, when they go back to their places of 
work, are going to have the resources they need to do their jobs. That 
may be resolved later this evening.
  So, perhaps in addition to stopping the punishment of employees, we 
can stop the punishment of taxpayers. Put the Government back to work 
and Congress and the White House can get down to its job of balancing 
the budget.

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