[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 9 (Wednesday, January 24, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H803-H804]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          DO-NOTHING CONGRESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Volkmer] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. VOLKMER. Mr. Speaker, Members of the House, this morning during 
my 1-minute speech, I chastised the Speaker of the House, Newt 
Gingrich, for not telling exactly the truth this morning on one of the 
talk show programs when he was being interviewed 

[[Page H804]]
in regard to President Clinton's State of the Union Message last night, 
because Speaker Gingrich said, in answer to a question as to whether 
the President was really for welfare reform, that the President had 
vetoed welfare reform twice and that one time he had vetoed a bill that 
had passed the Senate by 85 votes.
  Now, when I brought out this morning that that bill, that bill that 
the President vetoed, had only gotten 52 votes in the Senate, the 
gentleman from Florida [Mr. Stearns] got in the well and said, well 
that is the same bill; that that bill got 87 votes in September and it 
got 52 votes in December.
  Mr. Speaker, I say to the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Stearns], it is 
not the same bill. I think the gentleman should learn legislative 
procedure. The bill that passed the Senate had different provisions in 
it. There were changes made in conference. When the bill went to the 
President, it was changed vastly from the bill that had passed the 
Senate with those 87 votes. That is why Members who had voted for it, 
even Republican Members who had voted for it in September would not 
vote for it in December, and that is why the President vetoed it.
  I will go back, Mr. Speaker. Speaker Gingrich should know the facts. 
The facts are that that bill only got 52 votes in the Senate; it did 
not get 85 votes in the Senate and never did, and it barely passed the 
Senate because there were 47 votes against it. Two Republicans even 
voted against it.
  Now, if we really want welfare reform, we need to sit down and work 
together. We are not that far apart; we should do welfare reform. We 
need to do a balanced budget. We heard the President last night. He 
says, there are a lot of areas, and I agree, there are a lot of areas 
where both the Democrats, the President and the Republicans agree that 
we can make changes and reduce the deficit in future years. He said, 
let us do those. But that is not what we heard from this well this 
morning.
  The President held out his hand to work together. The Republicans 
have thrown it back and said: No, we are not going to do that. We are 
going to do it our way or no way.
  That is probably what we will have, is no way. That is what is wrong 
with this Government and this Congress today.
  There are many things that need to be done, and little has been done, 
so little that this congress will go down in history as the most do-
nothing Congress since 1933.
  Mr. Speaker, it is very interesting that this Congress in its first 
session worked for 365 days, had more votes than at any time in the 
near past Congresses, spent more hours working, but did less. A total 
of either 88 or 89 bills actually became law. We have not had that few 
since 1933, folks. Every Congress before this, immediate Congresses, 
the 1st session of the 103d, the 2d session of the 103d, the 102d, the 
100th, the 99th, the 98th; even with Democrats under Bush we did more 
than this Congress. This Congress, if we really want to know, is a do-
nothing Congress.
  There was a great bit of fanfare a year ago right here on this floor, 
and it started on the 4th of January last year. It lasted for 100 days, 
of all of this great legislation that is going to change this country. 
I remember the Speaker standing down here and clipping those little 
cards every time a bill would pass. He would stand here and clip that 
little card.
  Somebody better tell the Speaker and the majority that just because 
the House passes a bill, it does not do anything. It does not become 
law, it does not make one change. They act like all these changes were 
taking place. It has to go through the Senate. And what happened when 
those bills got over to the Senate? Well, we can go down the history of 
it and find that the majority over in the Senate, who are the same 
party, said no; they are too radical. No, those bills are too extreme. 
We are not going to do that radical approach to change in the 
Government.

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