[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 10 (Thursday, January 25, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H839-H840]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     CALL FOR A CLEAN DEBT CEILING

  (Mr. PALLONE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, we are getting perilously close to default. 
When I listen to some of the comments that are being made by Speaker 
Gingrich and the Republican leadership about the debt ceiling and when 
we are going to bring up a clean debt ceiling, or whether we even will, 
I get very concerned.
  Yesterday I listened to the Speaker, and he said that the debt 
ceiling or the possibility of bringing up extension of the debt ceiling 
was going to be linked in some way to a budget agreement, or further 
action on other legislation before this House. I think that is the 
wrong way to go.
  President Clinton said very emphatically in his State of the Union 
Address that we should have a clean debt ceiling and we should not wait 
around much longer to do it. Already it is a possibility that after 
today we will not be in session either next week or for a few weeks 
thereafter, and so far I have heard no statement by the Republican 
leadership that they are going to bring up a clean debt ceiling bill to 
extend 

[[Page H840]]
the debt and to allow us to prevent default. When is this going to come 
up?
  How much longer are we going to have to wait around here for the 
Republican leadership to play around with this issue? Already it is 
having a negative impact on our economy and I think it is about time 
that we faced up to our responsibility and brought up a clean debt 
ceiling bill so this Government does not go into default.

                          ____________________