[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 8 (Tuesday, January 23, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H746]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              HISTORIC SIGNIFICANCE OF THE 104TH CONGRESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Volkmer] is recognized 
during morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. VOLKMER. Mr. Speaker, as a former teacher, I know that you are 
interested, like I am, in history and the historic significance of 
events as they occur. I know that the Speaker of the House, Newt 
Gingrich, being a former history professor, is also interested in 
historic significance.
  I say that because we can look back on the first session, and let us 
take a look at some of the historic significance that has occurred in 
this Congress, in the first session.
  Well, one of the biggest things that is going to go down in the 
history books is that it is the first and only Congress, the first and 
only Congress led by the Republican majority, that closed down the 
Federal Government for a 6-day period in November, and a 21-day period 
in December of 1995 and January of 1996. Total of 27 days. Never in the 
history of this country has that ever occurred. That will be in the 
history books.

                              {time}  1330

  What was the total cost of that to our taxpayers by the Republican 
majority that says they want to save money, they want to cut out waste 
in Government? A waste of over $1 billion. Not a million, folks. A 
billion. A waste of over $1 billion. That is the historic significance. 
That is to the taxpayers. Now, it is all orchestrated by the Speaker of 
the House, Newt Gingrich.
  Another historic significance. It is only the third time in the 
history of this country, over 200 years, that this House has gone 365 
days, we opened up in January 3 or 4, if I remember, of 1995, we ended 
up January 3 of this year. Five minutes later we opened the second 
session. That has only happened three times. So we worked 365 days. We 
worked long hours. We had more votes in this House than at any time in 
the near past, from the 93d to the 104th Congress. More votes. But 
another historic significance. We did less legislation enacted into law 
than any other Congress in the first session since 1933.
  So we did a lot here yelling and hollering, a lot of passing bills 
and sending them to the Senate and the Republicans over in the Senate, 
led by the majority leader from Kansas say, ``No, we don't want that. 
That's too radical. We're not going to do that. That's too extreme.'' 
And as a result, we did almost nothing.
  That leads me to right now. Let us look at today. There is nobody 
else here. There is not another Member on the floor. We are back after 
2 weeks' vacation. Where is everybody? They are not here because they 
are not going to do anything today.
  Members, what are we going to do today? Well, we are going to do a 
little Corrections Day bill. We are going to amend the Federal Water 
Pollution Control Act relating to standards for constructed water 
conveyances. That is really important to the country.
  We are going to award a Congressional gold medal to Ruth and Billy 
Graham. We are going to do a bill on Saddleback Mountain-Arizona; and 
then we are going to make certain technical corrections in laws 
relating to Native Americans. That is what we are going to do today. 
That is really important.
  We are not going to do welfare reform. We are not going to do line-
time veto. We are not going to do any of those things. We probably will 
not do them the rest of this year.
  What are we going to do tomorrow? Well, tomorrow we may do a 
continuing resolution, because the Republican majority under Newt 
Gingrich now tell us that they are not going to close down the 
Government anymore so we have to pass one because the Government will 
close down after January 26 if we do not. So we will do that. Everybody 
agrees on that. There will be no problem with that. It will take about 
a half an hour at the most. I do not know what the rest of the day we 
are going to do or what we are going to do Friday.
  They tell me we may have a new conference report on the defense 
authorization bill and we may do that. Then they are telling me, and I 
hear through the grapevine, we may quit until sometime near the end of 
February.
  Talk about a do-nothing Congress. I do not know, I think most of us 
should go ahead and send all of our pay back, because most of the 
Members have not done anything. I say to Speaker Gingrich, that it is 
time to get things done. You want a balanced budget? You can have a 
balanced budget. You know you can have a balanced budget. Because the 
Democratic coalition budget is balanced in 7 years. By 2002 it is a 
balanced budget scored by CBO, the Congressional Budget Office. But it 
does not have your big tax cut in it, it does not have that $245 
billion for the wealthy.
  That is why you will not do it. You really want the tax cut for the 
wealthy. You really do not want a balanced budget.

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