[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 17 (Wednesday, February 7, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1060-S1062]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          THE SENATE SCHEDULE

  Mr. GLENN. Mr. President, I just want to make a few remarks about the 
recess. In fact, we are going on a vacation period when we have not 
even come close to completing the work of the U.S. Senate. I do not 
know whether people realize it, but if they look at the calendar they 
will see that we are into the middle of February. I do not think they 
realize what a short time period we have left to do the business of the 
Senate for this year in 1996. This year there are political party 
nominating conventions, and we will adjourn before the November 
elections. We will not come back in after the elections because that is 
just a lame duck session.

  In effect we are saddled with getting everything done between now and 
the convention time. If you consider our sine die adjournment which is 
scheduled for October 4, and take out the normal holiday periods of 
Easter, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, August recess, and Labor Day, we 
have about 85 legislative working days left. And if we go on our normal 
4-day week schedule where we do not come in until Monday noon and go 
out by Friday noon, which makes about a 4-day workweek, it means we 
have a total of about 65 working days left in this legislative year.
  I do not think people realize how tight we are on time. We have not 
even begun to complete the work of last year yet. We have five 
appropriations bills--VA-HUD appropriations, Commerce, State, Justice 
appropriations, Interior appropriations, Labor-HHS appropriations, and 
D.C. appropriations. In addition to that, we had hoped to have a 
balanced budget agreement. We had hoped to have welfare reform. We have 
an absolutely critical debt limit extension that has to be done so that 
the full faith and credit of the United States is honored around the 
world. That is not one that we can really put off at all.
  The continuing resolution and the debt limit expire by March 15. We 
now are taking off 3 weeks--almost 3 weeks.
  I find that unconscionable. Then we wonder why the American people 
have a lack of faith in their Congress to get things done for this 
country. 

[[Page S1061]]

  I appreciate the fact that there is a Presidential campaign on. But 
we need a balanced budget agreement. We want welfare reform. The debt 
limit absolutely has to be passed. We need health insurance reform 
legislation. We have a continuing resolution to provide funding for 
those appropriations bills not yet enacted, all of which are limping 
along below their normally funded levels.
  Mr. President, these are the leftovers from last year. This does not 
even address the new authorization and appropriations bills that we 
have to pass in 1996 for fiscal 1997. Here we are out for approximately 
a 3-week period, and to avoid a vote on whether we should go out or 
not--we are going to have pro forma sessions; a couple of them a week 
in which there will be no votes. We will have morning business only. We 
will come in and make our speeches, and nothing else will be 
accomplished. I find that unconscionable.
  I never said I am ashamed of the U.S. Senate. But I will tell you 
right at this moment I come closer to it than any other time.
  Do people realize we only have some 65 to 90 legislative days this 
year? These are important pieces of legislation. The items that are 
being partially funded with the continuing resolution now are limping 
along, as I said. We have veterans programs that are begging right 
now--where veterans hospitals are not getting the funding that they 
should have. We are not getting the new hospitals that were promised to 
be built.
  So we know that on February 26, we will not get anything done. Then 
we will have the 27th, 28th, and the 29th, and the 1st left in that 
week, if we work all day Friday--which is becoming rare around here. 
The debt limit expires on March 15 and we will actually have only 
somewhere around 11 or 12 days to complete the work. That will be the 
total time that we will have to work on the continuing resolution to 
provide for those five appropriations bills left over from last year. 
And we know from past experience that there are going to be quid pro 
quos all over the place on the debt limit and any CR's. We know that 
because that is what has happened every time they have come up this 
year. I think we are getting very, very short on time.
  I think we should stay here. And I think we should be working at the 
people's business. I think we should be working around the clock on 
this. And I think we should be working from 9 o'clock on Monday morning 
until 6 o'clock Friday afternoon--which is what the people expect of us 
when they elected us and sent us here. They do not expect us to come in 
here and work 3\1/2\- or 4-day weeks and then come back home and make 
all sorts of excuses about why we cannot get important legislation 
passed. I do not think people across this country realize we are still 
working on last year's agenda--five appropriations bills that we do not 
have done yet, and the new appropriations bills coming up this year. We 
only have 65 to 85 legislative days left in this year. For us to go out 
now for whatever purpose and for whatever reason I just think is not 
right.
  I am sorry we were not able to have a vote on this so we could in 
effect hold people's feet to the fire and say, ``OK. If you want to go 
out, at least have guts enough to vote on it.'' But that is not the way 
things work.
  So we are going out. We will not have pro forma sessions next week 
because that is President's week. Normally there is a break here. And 
then the following week we will have two pro forma sessions, as I 
understand it; one this Friday on the 9th, and then on the 20th and the 
23d but not with votes. We cannot have any votes on anything important. 
So we will all come in here and act like we are doing something, and we 
are not. I just do not think that is worthy of the people of this 
country who sent us here.
  Mr. President, in one of these pro forma sessions I will have a great 
deal more to say about this. I will provide additional examples of 
where we are being hurt.
  Weather forecasting is being degraded. Public safety is jeopardized. 
The National Weather Service is cutting back for lack of passing a 
Commerce bill. There is a whole number of things that people do not 
normally think about, programs funded at levels that are one-fourth 
reduced. Advanced Technology, the program Ounce of Prevention Council, 
Local Climate Change, Cops on the Beat, Drug Courts, AmeriCorps, 
Community Development Financial Institutions, HHS Office of Consumer 
Affairs--all of these are things that are being cut back now because we 
do not stay here and do the job we were sent here to do. I just find 
that unconscionable.
  I am so sorry that we are not staying here to take care of these 
things that we thought were ``must-do'' legislation.
  One other comment on the debt limit: Do we know what we are dealing 
with here? Are we to the point where Wall Street and world's financial 
community doubt the true faith and allegiance of the United States 
monetary system? Most of the nations of the world use our currency as 
their reserve currency. They put dollars in the bank depending on them. 
We put gold in the bank at one time. They put dollars in the bank. They 
have that kind of faith. Yet, we are going to run right up to the hilt 
again on this and create a lot of doubt as to whether we are going to 
pass a debt limit. And, if the past is any predictor of the future, we 
know we are going to have a lot of things attached as riders so that 
the House has its way on the Contract With America. I wish they had a 
Contract With America on how to keep faith and allegiance in our 
currency, and faith in our Government, because all we have been doing 
so far is creating doubt as to our ability really to manage things. So 
I regret we are going out. I regret we are going to stop having 
productive sessions here. I would have much preferred that we stay here 
and take care of the Nation's business. It seems to me that is what we 
should be doing.

  We will have more to say on this later, and I yield the floor.
  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, will the Senator yield for a question?
  Mr. GLENN. I yield for a question.
  Mr. LEVIN. First, I wish to commend the Senator for pointing out what 
I think is a very, very serious inadequacy, which is to leave here for 
almost 3 weeks when we have two major threats to this economy which are 
looming before us, which hang over our heads. One is the extension of 
the debt limit. In effect, we will be paying our obligations through 
March 15, but from then on there is uncertainty. And we are also 
operating on interim funding for critical programs including education, 
the environment, and a number of other programs which have had major 
cuts. As the Senator from Ohio has pointed out, during this interim 
period, a $3 billion cut in education annualized. If that cut continues 
at the current level that we have through March 15, there will be a $3 
billion reduction in education programs, everything from title I to 
Head Start to college loan programs to school-to-work programs, and so 
forth.
  Now, my question of our friend from Ohio is this. One of the big 
issues that is outstanding is whether or not we are going to extend the 
debt limit so we pay our obligations, just simply pay our obligations. 
The country has never defaulted on an obligation yet. We have always 
paid interest owing. But as of right now we do not know whether or not 
there is going to be an extension of our debt limit in time to pay our 
obligations or whether March 15 is going to come and go and we could 
default unless we extend that debt limit.
  Would the Senator from Ohio agree with this, that the fact we leave 
this issue hanging, the fact that this uncertainty is created, and the 
fact that we are going out effectively for 3 weeks while this 
uncertainty is out there could create a major economic problem for us 
even if at the last minute or in the last few days before March 15 
there is a satisfactory resolution; that the act of going out now with 
the uncertainty that will be created between now and when we 
effectively come back in itself is a danger even if people were 
confident that somehow or other between the time we come back and March 
15 there would be an extension of the debt limit?
  Mr. GLENN. I would answer the Senator by saying absolutely, I think 
there is that danger. We saw a lot of comment in the international 
financial press and our own domestic financial press when we extended 
this to March 15. There was some real concern expressed as to why March 
15, why was it not longer? If we really were confident 

[[Page S1062]]
that we were taking care of the best interests of the United States and 
our economy, why did we not make it longer? Why did we make it such a 
short period of time? The closer we get to that deadline, it seems to 
me, the more questions are going to be raised.
  The Senator makes a very good point. If we ever had a real default, 
if we ever come up and really go into default, it affects our credit 
rating. It raises interest rates, and it would cost future taxpayers 
billions of dollars in higher borrowing costs. To play around with that 
like Russian roulette, playing with fire around gasoline on something 
that important for the future of this country I just think is 
unconscionable. I do not think we should be going out.
  Mr. LEVIN. I thank my friend from Ohio for yielding. I commend him 
for his statement. I must say that I totally concur, that the threat of 
using these weapons against our own economy is a very, very dangerous 
thing. That threat should be removed before we go out for what amounts 
to a 3-week recess.
  Mr. ASHCROFT addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri.
  Mr. ASHCROFT. Mr. President, I thank you for the opportunity to 
speak.

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