[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 12 (Tuesday, January 30, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S562]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      A VOTE AGAINST THE NINTH CR

 Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I rise today to discuss my vote 
against the continuing resolution on Friday, January 26.
  The CR under which the Government is now operating is the ninth 
continuing resolution for fiscal 1996. That is four more CR's for 1 
fiscal year than we have ever passed before. And we can be sure, come 
March 15, that we will be traveling down this road again.
  This CR continues a dangerous and chaotic policy of haphazardly 
appropriating funds, while leaving State and local governments, Federal 
employees, and millions of Americans who depend on the Federal 
Government uncertain of the future.
  This uncertainty can be traced in large part to the fact that months 
into fiscal 1996, the Republican controlled Congress has yet to 
complete work on all 13 appropriations bills.
  This congressional foot dragging has brought us to the point we're at 
today: With a CR that is nothing more than a cynical attempt, by those 
who held the Government hostage and then didn't get their way, to 
dismantle critically important Federal programs in a piecemeal and 
indiscriminate fashion.
  Let me be clear on one point: I am absolutely committed to balancing 
the budget. In 1981, I was one of six Senators to vote against 
President Reagan's budget, which I may add got us into this mess in the 
first place. I cosponsored the Gramm-Rudman Deficit Reduction Act and 
just last October, I was 1 of 19 Senators to vote for the Simon-Conrad 
bill that would balance the budget in 7 years with CBO numbers.
  More important, after the havoc wreaked by the Republicans during the 
last Government shutdown, I am committed to seeing the Government stay 
open and Federal employees at their desks.
  Continuing resolutions, Government shutdowns, and legislative 
blackmail are simply no way to run the Federal Government.
  The majority party says we must balance the budget to protect our 
children from inheriting a crushing debt. Yet at the same time we hear 
this rhetoric, the majority is passing a CR that directly harms our 
children's future by eliminating $3.1 billion from education programs--
the largest cut in education funding in American history.
  Education is not alone. This CR would cut back funding by 25 percent 
for the Cops on the Beat Program, summer jobs programs for 
disadvantaged youth, and environmental cleanup. How can this Congress 
claim it is protecting children at the same time it is cutting money to 
keep communities safe and our water and air clean?
  The majority party came into Washington with the slogan ``Promises 
Made, Promises Kept.'' Well if their promises were to shut down the 
Government, eliminate money for education and the environment, cut 
Medicare and Medicaid, raise taxes on working families, and now 
hamstring the Federal Government's efforts to maintain its 
responsibilities and obligations, then I suppose they have kept their 
promises.
  I am hopeful that at some point in the future we will take our cue 
from President Clinton's State of the Union call for reconciliation by 
reaching a bipartisan agreement on how to balance the budget. Until 
then, this Government will stumble from CR to CR while millions of 
Americans suffer.

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