[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 3 (Friday, January 5, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S75-S77]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           THE BUDGET DILEMMA

  Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, it is my understanding, and I think the 
understanding of most of the Senators present, that the majority leader 
and the minority leader are at the White House at this moment once 
again meeting with the President as we try to unravel and resolve the 
budget issue that we are now in that has brought a portion of our 
Government to a standstill.
  I, like many of my colleagues, am tremendously frustrated by the 
process of the last several weeks which has failed to produce a 
resolution that appeared to be a resolution committed to by the White 
House some weeks ago, that we would negotiate on the terms of a 7-year 
balanced budget reviewed by CBO figures. That simply has not 
materialized. And, of course, over the course of the last several 
weeks, with well over 200,000 Federal employees unemployed by failure 
to act, it is now time for the Congress to move to the issue of those 
Federal employees and resolve it.
  As many of us know, the House earlier today passed a resolution that 
would allow those employees to come back to work for a period of time 
which results hopefully in the ability then of the Congress to move 
toward a balanced budget and resolve that issue and for us to be able 
to conclude the budget and get on with the business of operating this 
Government as I think the American people expect us to do.
  I find it ironic that we are yet fumbling with the issue of a budget 
when we are nearing a statutory deadline that the President must agree 
to for the submission of a 1997 budget.
  Here we are having failed to complete a 1996 budget that is balanced, 
that honors the commitment that we believe we hold with the American 
people to produce a balanced budget over the course of the next 7 
years, and it will be on February 5, exactly 1 month from today, that 
the President by law is responsible for submitting the 1997 balanced 
budget, a product of the 1974 Budget Act.
  Why are we in this dilemma at this moment? I think, except for the 
HHS, Education appropriations bill that my colleagues on the other side 
of the aisle have refused to allow us to debate and to bring to a vote 
and to send to the President, the Congress has done its homework. It 
has done what it is responsible for doing under the Constitution in 
submitting to the President the appropriate appropriations bills.
  The President's only action has been to veto, veto, veto the bills 
that would have kept the veterans' hospitals fully up and running, that 
would have kept the veterans' programs alive and operative; instead of 
being subject to the criticism we now hear, that the pharmaceutical 
shelves at some of our veterans' hospitals may be growing empty if we 
fail to act responsibly in a short period of time.
  The President's actions, if he had not vetoed, would have kept the 
national parks and the forests and the museums opened and would have 
funded the Department of Justice and given law enforcement block grants 
to the States, would have allowed numerous agencies to continue and to 
complete their obligations to small business contractors and suppliers 
and provide passport services, and so on and so forth.
  That is exactly what has happened. We have watched this President as 
he 

[[Page S76]]
has vetoed these bills in an attempt to use rhetoric to place the 
burden on the shoulders of the U.S. Congress.
  I ask unanimous consent, Mr. President, to have printed in the Record 
a dialog that occurred on CNN last night between Judy Woodruff, the 
anchor, and Brooks Jackson, a special assignment correspondent, that I 
thought would be appropriate to be in the Congressional Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

              Executive Shutdown Statistics Miss the Mark

       JUDY WOODRUFF, Anchor. If you are not one of the Federal 
     workers staying home and worrying about bills, just how 
     harmful are the effects of the partial government shutdown?
       Our Brooks Jackson has some eye opening details.
       BROOKS JACKSON, Special Assignment Correspondent. The 
     shutdown--President Clinton calls it an unnatural disaster, 
     but how bad is it? Let's check some facts.
       The president ticked off some dire sounding consequences.
       Pres. BILL CLINTON: This week, the Meals on Wheels Program 
     for senior citizens will run out of money.
       BROOK JACKSON: Federal money, yes, but in fact meals are 
     still being delivered to seniors almost everywhere, paid for 
     by state money or vendors extending credit.
       Pres. BILL CLINTON: Yesterday, the Environmental Protection 
     Agency shut down toxic waste clean-ups at 32 sites across 
     America.
       BROOKS JACKSON: This time Clinton underestimated. In fact, 
     more than 450 clean-ups, including this one in Virginia are 
     being halted. But there are 1,283 clean-up sites and work is 
     continuing at many, maybe more than half, including the 
     roughly 100 sites that pose any immediate threat.
       Pres. BILL CLINTON: Funds to pay for drugs, food and 
     supplies at veterans' hospitals run out today.
       BROOKS JACKSON: Funds ran out but not the food. Patients in 
     veterans hospitals are still being fed, still getting 
     medication. The Veterans Administration says patients are 
     unaffected and vendors are still working figuring they'll get 
     paid eventually.
       Pres. BILL CLINTON: Ten states have run out of the funding 
     they use to run our unemployment insurance program and 15 
     more will soon do so.
       BROOKS JACKSON: But, in fact, not a single jobless person 
     has yet missed an unemployment check. The Labor Department 
     confirms. Kansas did shut its offices briefly, but then came 
     up with state money to continue benefits as other states are 
     doing. Clinton was just wrong on one point.
       Pres. BILL CLINTON: Half the Head Start Programs in the 
     country will run out of money within the month.
       BROOKS JACKSON: In fact, Head Start officials say only 200 
     programs will lose funding at the end of the month out of a 
     total of more than 1,400, so it's way less than half. The 
     Justice Department got one of its facts wrong too.
       JAMIE GORELICK, Deputy Attorney General: There are 
     companies that provide credit cards for gasoline, are 
     starting not to honor those credit cards.
       BROOKS JACKSON: Turns out, Federal drug agents in South 
     Florida tried to use a card that expired in 1995--nothing to 
     do with the budget fight. The White House said the Federal 
     Emergency Management Agency might be unable to recall some 
     furloughed workers if an earthquake hit.
       MIKE McCURRY, White House Press Secy.: --some of those 
     employees because they can't pay their bills and don't have 
     phone service.
       BROOKS JACKSON: FEMA says phone service has been cut off 
     for about half a dozen Washington employees, but admits their 
     bill paying problems probably began long before the budget 
     deadlock.
       Of course, a longer deadlock will produce more serious 
     consequences, but for now, the shutdown looks less like a 
     national disaster than it does a political fiasco.
       Brooks Jackson, CNN, Washington.

  Mr. CRAIG. It is an interesting dialog, Mr. President, because it 
confirms some of the things that I have been talking about and that 
have concerned a lot of Members of this Congress as to the rhetoric of 
the White House and what to believe over the course of the last good 
many weeks, when the President has seemed to be a constantly changing 
and moving target on the issue of the budget, to agree some weeks ago 
to a 7-year, CBO-targeted budget, now not to want to present it or not 
to appear to be interested in presenting it.
  The dialog that the anchor at CNN last night went through with Brooks 
Jackson was interesting in the sense that it said the President said 
this, but in fact this is the case, the President said that, but in 
fact something else is the case. I think it goes along to show that the 
shifting sands at the White House are extremely difficult for this 
Congress to work with at this moment to try to resolve these kinds of 
issues. I thought it would be important that that become a part of the 
record because simply they have not, in my opinion, kept their word.
  So it is important tonight for the Congress to intervene, as we are 
now doing. I use the word ``intervene'' to pull, if you will, these 
Federal employees off the hostage roster and put them back to work 
doing what they are responsible for doing and bringing them back into 
the real world because they have been in limbo, and that has created 
great frustration. And it should not be allowed to happen.
  I am one for some weeks that has been critical of using our Federal 
employees as hostages, if you will, or pawns in this budget battle that 
we are in, and that, Mr. President, in no way lessens my interest or 
the interest of this Congress in achieving a balanced budget.
  I have been an advocate for well over a decade that the Congress face 
the reality of their spending habits and balance the budget. I have 
pushed for a balanced budget amendment, and of course we know the 
history of that whole debate here in the House and in the Senate for 
the last good number of years.
  But without question, the battle that we are engaged in is extremely 
fundamental. It is not business as usual, as some news reporters and 
observers of the Congress would argue that it is. We have not phonied 
the numbers. We have not used smoke and mirrors, because if we had, we 
would not be in session right now, we would be in adjournment, and we 
would have told the American people that the work of the Government was 
done and that the 1996 budget was in place, and that all was well with 
the world.
  That simply has not been the case. And it should not be the case. We 
are dealing with real figures right now, trying to downsize the overall 
growth of Government or the rate of growth. And you, Mr. President, 
have been directly involved, as have others of our colleagues, in 
trying to face the reality of these tough choices. Now we are just 
simply trying to get the White House to face the reality of tough 
choices. And they have simply passed on occasion after occasion to do 
that.

  What we are trying to say at this moment, and what I am pleased the 
House has been willing to say, is let us at least take the Federal 
employees out of this battle and set them to the side, allow them to do 
the work they were charged with doing. I hope we can get that done.
  Now, that was the first CR that was passed. I hope that we would be 
able to consider a second resolution or continuing resolution that was 
passed by the House today. That would allow all of the Government to 
open up for at least a period of time through January 26. The reason I 
say that is important is because while we are allowing, I hope, the 
Federal employees to go back to work, we may not necessarily be giving 
them the tools to do their work.
  Of course, that would be a bit of a hollow argument that we are 
allowing Government to continue to operate and turning as it should 
without giving them the total tools to do so. The House recognized 
that, but they have put a requirement on the President. That 
requirement is that the President send forth a balanced budget, scored 
by CBO, and that budget be in balance in the 7-year timeframe that the 
Republican Congress has asked and required by their actions, and that 
the same funding levels of the CR that expired on December 15, funds 
required at 75 percent of fiscal year 1995 levels, would operate the 
significantly impacted programs.
  I hope that we can look at that continuing resolution tonight and 
that our colleagues on the other side of the aisle would agree with us 
on that. Then we could clearly say Government is fully back in 
operation, while we work with the White House to resolve this issue by 
the 26th of January.
  Mr. President, those are key and important issues critical to all of 
us, but more importantly critical to our country. I think that the 
American people expect us to be able to operate the Government in a 
responsible way, but they have said very clearly that part of our 
responsibility is to bring this Government in balance, that a near $5 
trillion debt and a $200 billion-plus deficit as 

[[Page S77]]
far as the eye can see are no longer acceptable, that while we must be 
concerned about programs that fund the present, we must also reflect 
our concern by our actions on programs that impact the future of our 
country.

  That, of course, is what we attempt to do tonight. So, Mr. President, 
I hope that within minutes our leadership will be in place and we can 
consider these important CR's to move the Government forward, to allow 
the Federal employees out of hostage, if you will, and back to work by 
Monday morning.
  I think it is important for our country that we do so. But while we 
do it, let us not lose focus on the reason we are here; and that is 
that the White House has flatly refused to produce a balanced budget. 
That is now their obligation to do so. We have done so. We have done so 
in a responsible manner. It may not be a balanced budget that all of us 
agreed to, but it was one that clearly for the first time in decades 
demonstrates the priorities of Government under the kind of spending 
limitations that we believe are clearly necessary to get our debt and 
our deficit under control.
  I hope the Senate will act responsibly tonight, as I believe the 
House has done this afternoon. With those comments, I yield the floor.
  Mr. FORD addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kentucky.

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