[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 25 (Wednesday, February 28, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H1402]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    WHERE IS THE DEBT CEILING BILL?

  (Mrs. KENNELLY asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mrs. KENNELLY. Mr. Speaker, today is February 28. Where is the debt 
ceiling? Speaker Gingrich, Majority Leaders Armey and Dole promised the 
President in writing to act on debt ceiling legislation by February 29 
in a manner acceptable to both you and the Congress, in order to 
guarantee the Government does not default on its obligations.
  Unfortunately, that does not look like it is going to happen. But the 
Republican leadership needs to understand they can't stall indefinitely 
without dire consequences.
  On March 15, the debt ceiling snaps back to a lower level pursuant to 
the legislation we passed earlier to guarantee March Social Security 
checks. This means that the debt will have exceeded the debt limit and 
as a consequence, no securities may be issued under any circumstance 
for any reason without increasing the debt ceiling. This snap back has 
potentially disastrous consequences for the Medicare and Social 
Security trust funds. Because the Treasury cannot issue any kind of 
securities, it cannot issue the $2 billion of new investments in the 
Social Security and Medicare trust funds that need to be issued on 
March 15 and each day thereafter.
  This is a very serious problem which, if the Republican leadership 
allows to happen, will require legislation to make the Social Security 
and Medicare trust funds whole. I call on the Republican leadership to 
bring a clean debt ceiling bill to the floor immediately and not 
jeopardize the Social Security and Medicare trust funds.

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