[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 33 (Tuesday, March 12, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1789-S1790]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  COMPLETE THE APPROPRIATIONS PROCESS

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I was shocked last week to read a headline 
in one of the local publications that the President was threatening to 
shut down the Government again. That was the headline: ``Clinton 
Threatens Government Shutdown.''
  It shocked me because I knew that, at that very time, the Senate 
Appropriations Committee was working on this omnibus appropriations 
bill, and it was reported out of committee by a broad bipartisan vote 
with only two Senators voting against the action by the Appropriations 
Committee.
  This legislation does include funds for the rest of the year for the 
five appropriations bills that have not yet been signed into law, two 
of which have not yet passed the Senate. Those two are the Labor-HHS-
Education bill and the conference report on the District of Columbia 
appropriations bill, which is being held up because some Members do not 
want poor students in the District of Columbia to have access to 
vouchers. The omnibus bill also includes three other appropriations 
bills that have been vetoed by the President.
  So there are five of them. Obviously, everybody from the District of 
Columbia to the Interior Department would like to get this process 
completed.
  In the Appropriations Committee, they also included emergency funds 
for the disasters that we have had in the past few months across this 
country, and they included funds for the United States peacekeeping 
effort in Bosnia.

[[Page S1790]]

 All in all, the bill goes more than halfway to meet the requests by 
the President for additional funds. Keep in mind, the President 
continues to ask for more money. That is what is at stake here: He 
wants more money to spend--always more money to spend. While we are 
trying to impose some reasonable restraints on the spending of the 
Federal Government in the nondefense discretionary areas, he continues 
to ask for more money, $8 billion more than was included in our earlier 
legislation. But this omnibus appropriation includes a $4.7 billion 
move toward what the President has asked for, in the form of a 
contingency fund that the President could spend after agreement is 
reached for countervailing savings in entitlement programs. More than 
half a loaf in any process is a major concession. And yet, we are being 
told that is still not good enough.
  This legislation includes approximately $166 billion for these five 
bills and the nine departments that are covered by the bill. I repeat, 
$166 billion. And yet, for an additional $3 billion, the President says 
he will veto the whole thing. I do not think that makes sense. When the 
Senate is offering $166 billion, is the President really going to veto 
this legislation and shut down the Government to force us up to $169 
billion?
  I do not think that is the way to begin this process. Let us keep the 
rhetoric cool. Let us go forward with this bill. Let us consider the 
amendments that will be offered, and I am sure there will be a few--I 
hope only a few, not many. We can, hopefully, get it completed today, 
and it will go to conference between the House and the Senate.
  The House has added, I believe, $3.3 billion in additional funds; the 
Senate has added $4.7 billion. The administration will be involved, and 
in the conference that will ensue, hopefully an agreement can be 
reached quickly on the conference report. That way we can send this 
legislation down to the President, and he can sign it before the 
deadline of Friday midnight. Then the affected departments and agencies 
can know what they can count on for the rest of this year.
  Or, if we run out of time or if difficulties are encountered, we will 
still have the option of passing a short-term continuing resolution, 
merely continuing current law but with reduced funding. Those options 
are out there. We should do our job, and we should do it without the 
threat or the intimation that, if we do not do it just the way one side 
or the other wants it, then there is going to be another veto fracas.
  I remind my colleagues that the veto threat came from the President 
last week, and it came because he wants $3 billion more added to a $166 
billion bill. I do not think that makes good fiscal sense, and I hope 
we will take calm and deliberative action to complete this legislation 
either today or as soon as possible tomorrow.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.

                          ____________________