[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 30 (Thursday, March 7, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S1639]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                A VETO OF THE OMNIBUS APPROPRIATIONS ACT

  Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I wish to compliment my friend and 
colleague, Senator Hatfield, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, 
for his statement. I hope the administration was listening. I just 
jotted down a few of the figures that Senator Hatfield alluded to. He 
mentioned the committee had moved $6.2 billion out of the $8 billion 
the administration had requested. If I understand his statement 
correctly, they are still saying they will veto the bill because we are 
not spending enough.
  If they veto this bill or maybe if their threatened veto means this 
bill does not go forward, therefore the net result of what they are 
looking at, if I think ahead of this scenario, is then they are going 
to be looking at a continuing resolution, one that will continue 
funding at the lower of the House or Senate level, maybe even less a 
percentage of that. So the administration, while trying to get more 
money in spending for a variety of programs, may well end up getting 
less, because, as Senator Hatfield just stated, they cannot make 
Congress appropriate money. It may well be that some of the President's 
pet programs, if they follow through on this veto threat of what sounds 
to me to be a very generous, maybe even overly generous bill reported 
out of the Senate Appropriations Committee--if they are going to 
threaten to veto that bill, maybe we should just look at the continuing 
resolution and/or maybe we should look at zero funding for programs 
such as national service.
  Maybe we should look at zero funding for some other programs which 
the President feels very strongly about. He cannot make us appropriate 
the money. If he wants to shut down the entire Agency because he does 
not get the money for want of his new programs, that would be his 
decision, and it would also be his responsibility. And maybe he thinks 
he will gain politically by doing so. I doubt it. Maybe we will have to 
find out.
  Again, I think Senator Hatfield has something very good for the 
administration. It is very premature, in my opinion, as he stated on 
the floor of the Senate, for the administration to be issuing veto 
threats just when a bill is passed out of the Appropriations Committee. 
Usually that is not done until bills are passed and reported out of 
both Houses, and then possibly a conference report.
  So I am disappointed to hear of the President's veto message, or veto 
threat, as explained by Senator Hatfield.

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