[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 9 (Wednesday, January 24, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S332]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 BALANCED BUDGET AND DEBT CEILING LIMIT

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, in response to the comments from the 
distinguished Democratic leader, certainly we should continue to find a 
way to move toward a balanced budget agreement. The President said last 
night he wanted to do that, and even though he vetoed the balanced 
budget when we sent it to him, that should not deter our efforts.
  I believe from what I saw last night that the majority leader, 
Senator Dole, indicated we are, in fact, going to continue to pursue 
this, and he intends for us to send balanced budget legislation to the 
President.
  So we need to think about how we do that. The Senator from South 
Dakota mentioned, even though we want to avoid, if we can, a 
protracted, cumbersome process, perhaps we can have an agreement that 
would allow us to avoid that. But we will continue to have that as our 
goal. We are going to work to give the President an opportunity to, in 
fact, sign bills along the lines of what he said he wanted to sign last 
night.
  I know that the House, where continuing resolutions must begin, is in 
the process of developing a continuing resolution, or a balanced budget 
downpayment is the way I think it should be appropriately described. 
They will be acting on that, I believe, on Thursday, and then we will 
have that legislation before us. I certainly hope and expect it is 
going to be legislation that the Senate will be able to pass and that 
will go to the President.
  With regard to the debt ceiling extension, there, again, I believe 
the history of that has been the House will act first. I know the House 
is thinking about that and is working on it.
  With regard to it being a clean debt ceiling, I went back and checked 
the record in 1990 and 1989 and 1987, back to 1984, and found that in 
most years debt ceilings did, in fact, have riders on them. Those were 
put on by a Democratic-controlled Congress when we had a Republican 
President, so it would not be anything out of the ordinary if it worked 
the other way this time.
  I must say, as a Senator who has voted in the Senate and in the House 
both ways on debt ceiling--sometimes for them, sometimes against them, 
and not just when there was a Republican President, sometimes 
Democratic Presidents--sometimes my vote has been influenced by the 
riders. Quite often, they are agreed-to things, things that need to be 
done. I hope that we will wait and see exactly what will be the best 
way to proceed on that, keeping in mind the House will act on it, and 
we will certainly be communicating with them.
  I have said publicly that I think we should do that, and I fully 
expect that we will. The timing, of course, will be determined by a 
whole series of meetings that will be underway. I assure the Senator 
from South Dakota that we are going to be very busy during the next few 
days and weeks, and we have a lot of work to do. We have to begin on 
the next fiscal year. Hearings must begin soon on budgets and 
appropriations bills and even authorizations. We certainly intend to 
begin that process.
  With that, Mr. President, I yield the floor for others who might have 
comments.
  Mr. HEFLIN addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alabama is recognized.

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