[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 3 (Friday, January 5, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H309]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 CLOSING GOVERNMENT IS AN EMBARRASSMENT

  (Mr. MINGE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. MINGE. Mr. Speaker, we have been treated to an exercise in petty 
brinkmanship in this institution. It ill becomes the Congress of the 
United States of America and certainly has disappointed and embarrassed 
all of the residents of our great Nation.
  Mr. Speaker, in visiting with county commissioners in my home State, 
I certainly have become aware that they are keenly embarrassed. They 
say that if any county government had to shut its doors because the 
county commissioners could not agree on a budget, that they essentially 
would be forced to resign by the public pressure in that community.

                              {time}  1945

  What are we doing? We are sitting here in Washington. We are not 
resolving this problem. Instead we are engaging in party bickering, and 
we have one side that is refusing to let the other side even vote on a 
resolution to put the Government back to work. Instead we are bouncing 
continuing resolutions back and forth between the House and the Senate.
  Let us get together, let us pass the resolution that was introduced 
on the Senate side and put America back to work.

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