[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 46 (Friday, March 29, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3195-S3198]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
FURTHER CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS--HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION 170
UNANIMOUS CONSENT AGREEMENT
Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate
proceed to the debate on House Joint Resolution 170, further that
debate on the joint resolution be limited to the following, Senator
Harkin 15 minutes; Senator Byrd 15 minutes; Senator Hatfield 15
minutes. I further ask unanimous consent that no amendments be in
order, and that immediately following the expiration or yielding back
of time, the joint resolution be read a third time, and that the Senate
proceed to vote on passage of the joint resolution, with no intervening
action, provided the following Senators be recognized to speak
following the vote: Senator Graham of Florida, this Senator, and
Senator Kennedy of Massachusetts.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. DOLE. Further, Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that that
agreement be in effect notwithstanding the receipt of the papers from
the House.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. DOLE. Let me indicate, I hope this can all be done by voice vote.
I know there is one request on the other side for a rollcall vote. I
think it is a simple extension. The appropriators worked all through
the night. It is no one's fault they did not finish everything, because
they have been working with the White House. I hope that we do not
punish our colleagues who had to leave earlier in the day. So perhaps
after the debate we could have a voice vote. But if necessary, I guess
we will have a rollcall vote.
Mr. HATFIELD addressed the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair recognizes the Senator from Oregon.
Mr. HATFIELD. Thank you, Mr. President.
Mr. President, this joint resolution provides continuing
appropriations until April 24, 1996, for the departments and agencies
of the Federal Government normally provided for under the five
appropriations bills that have not yet been signed into law.
Special provision has been made for a labor-management matter at the
Federal Aviation Administration, for the Federal payments to the
District of Columbia, for a matter relative to the Auburn Indian
Restoration Act, and for economic assistance to Bosnia.
Adoption of this joint resolution will extend funding authority for
the departments and agencies concerned for another 3\1/2\ weeks,
enabling the appropriations committees, the joint leadership, and the
White House to continue discussions on the omnibus appropriations bill
now in conference, and reach agreement thereon. We have already made a
great deal of progress on the omnibus bill.
Mr. President, most of our issues have been resolved and major
portions of the bill have been closed. But there are still some
significant matters requiring leadership attention that will need to be
discussed during the recess and resolved when we resume the conference
on April 15. I have indicated that I will convene that conference on
that date, April 15, at some hour during that afternoon.
I am confident that our discussions will be fruitful and we will
produce a bill that the President will endorse. That is our goal. I
yield back the remainder of my time.
Mr. BYRD addressed the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair recognizes the Senator from West
Virginia.
Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, the distinguished chairman of the
appropriations committee has made a most appropriate and eloquent and
all-embracing statement concerning the conference report, concerning
the continuing resolution.
Mr. President, this resolution will continue the operations through
April 24, 1996, of those departments and agencies for which full-year
appropriations for fiscal year 1996 have not yet been enacted. As
Senators are aware, five of the regular thirteen appropriation bills
have not been enacted: Commerce/Justice/State, the District of
Columbia, Interior, Labor/HHS, and VA/HUD.
As Senators also know, an appropriations conference has been ongoing
over the past several days on H.R. 3019, an omnibus appropriations act,
which would provide full-year funding for all of these departments and
agencies. That measure contains approximately 1,500 pages of bill
language, and while I greatly credit Chairman Hatfield, Chairman
Livingston, and the other House and Senate conferees on the intensive
effort that has been underway to complete action on this measure,
several issues still remain in a number of the chapters which have
caused us to reach the point of bringing this short-term continuing
resolution to the Senate for its consideration.
In addition to the extension of the date of the present continuing
resolution through April 24th, House Joint Resolution 170 would also
provide the District of Columbia with its full payment for the entire
fiscal year and, importantly, would provide the $198 million requested
by the President in funds for assistance for Eastern Europe and the
Baltic States. The need for these funds is immediate, and I support
their inclusion in this short-term continuing resolution.
Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, the Senate should not be considering the
12th continuing resolution of this fiscal year. Congress should have
completed work on the fiscal year 1996 budget last October, when it was
supposed to have been completed. It is indeed unprecedented and
outrageous that Congress has so utterly failed to address this year's
budget in a timely fashion.
It is unprecedented in the history of this Nation to find ourselves 6
months into the fiscal year with four appropriations bills unfinished.
This Senator finds it all the more outrageous that the Senate is
considering another short-term continuing resolution when it could have
easily completed its work this week.
Leaders were in the process of negotiating a number of difficult
issues that would have led to a reasonable omnibus appropriations bill
that the President could sign. Negotiations were progressing on this
bill, and if they were permitted to continue for only a few more days,
Congress might be able to complete all of the unfinished business in
this year's appropriations process. Because much more work is needed,
Congress should have stayed in this weekend or into next week to finish
the fiscal year 1996 budget.
But the majority insists on leaving for a 2-week break.
The omnibus bill passed the Senate over a week ago. But the majority
did
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not schedule its first meeting of the conferees until this Wednesday,
more than a week after the Senate passed the bill. As a result,
conferees found themselves working late into the night yesterday,
actually until 1 a.m. this morning. Still, today they could not
complete the people's business, so Congress is off for a 2-week recess.
Instead of working through the difficult issues remaining to be
resolved in the fiscal year 1996 budget, the Republican leadership
decided to delay with yet another stopgap measure. And the American
people will pay the price.
Continued government by continuing resolution spells slow death on
the installment plan for a number of critical Government programs. The
funding levels are simply too low to adequately fund a number of basic
functions of Government. In addition, the uncertainty facing Government
agencies and the people they serve has undermined the effectiveness of
programs designed to improve our children's education, clean up the
environment, and put police on the streets.
Under the 12 continung resolutions this year, education is suffering
drastic funding cutbacks. Schools can't plan. Children, teachers, and
families are being shortchanged.
Environmental cleanup efforts have been slowed, and superfund sites
left unattended.
Because of reductions in the COPS Program, fewer police are on our
streets.
Having said that, it is important to note that this continuing
resolution does accomplish several important goals that I fully
support.
First, the District of Columbia is finally provided in this
legislation the balance of its Federal payment for the rest of this
fiscal year.
Another provision clarifies that Federal Aviation Administration
labor representatives retain their statutory role.
Perhaps most important is the $200 million in reconstruction aid for
Bosnia contained in this bill. This money is critically important if
the Dayton Accord's peace plan is to be implemented successfully.
Bosnia's infrastructure has sustained great damage in its years of war,
and this aid is critically needed to help with the restoration effort.
I am pleased it was included.
Nevertheless, on balance, this legislation does not deserve the
support of this body. I will vote no on this continuing resolution, not
because of what it includes, but because of what it does not include--
the essential education, environment, and law enforcement services it
fails to provide--and because of the mismanagement it represents.
Congress should remain in session and finish the real work that should
have been completed 6 months ago.
Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senator Harkin
be recognized for his time following Senator Kennedy in the previous
agreement.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. All time has been yielded back. Without
objection, the joint resolution is considered as having been read for
the third time.
Mr. NUNN. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second? There appears to
be a sufficient second.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on passage of the joint
resolution. The yeas and nays have been ordered. The clerk will call
the roll.
The bill clerk called the roll.
Mr. LOTT. I announce that the Senator from New York [Mr. D'Amato],
the Senator from North Carolina [Mr. Helms], the Senator from Oklahoma
[Mr. Inhofe], the Senator from Kansas [Mrs. Kassebaum], the Senator
from Florida [Mr. Mack], the Senator from Kentucky [Mr. McConnell], the
Senator from Wyoming [Mr. Simpson], and the Senator from Alaska [Mr.
Stevens] are necessarily absent.
Mr. FORD. I announce that the Senator from West Virginia [Mr.
Rockefeller], the Senator from Vermont [Mr. Leahy], the Senator from
Arkansas [Mr. Bumpers], and the Senator from New York [Mr. Moynihan]
are necessarily absent.
The result was announced--yeas 64, nays 24, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 60 Leg.]
YEAS--64
Abraham
Ashcroft
Baucus
Bennett
Bond
Bradley
Breaux
Brown
Burns
Byrd
Campbell
Chafee
Coats
Cochran
Cohen
Coverdell
Craig
DeWine
Dole
Domenici
Exon
Feingold
Feinstein
Ford
Frist
Gorton
Graham
Gramm
Grams
Grassley
Gregg
Hatch
Hatfield
Heflin
Hutchison
Inouye
Jeffords
Johnston
Kempthorne
Kohl
Kyl
Lieberman
Lott
Lugar
McCain
Mikulski
Murkowski
Nickles
Nunn
Pell
Pressler
Robb
Roth
Santorum
Sarbanes
Shelby
Simon
Smith
Snowe
Specter
Thomas
Thompson
Thurmond
Warner
NAYS--24
Akaka
Biden
Bingaman
Boxer
Bryan
Conrad
Daschle
Dodd
Dorgan
Faircloth
Glenn
Harkin
Hollings
Kennedy
Kerrey
Kerry
Lautenberg
Levin
Moseley-Braun
Murray
Pryor
Reid
Wellstone
Wyden
NOT VOTING--12
Bumpers
D'Amato
Helms
Inhofe
Kassebaum
Leahy
Mack
McConnell
Moynihan
Rockefeller
Simpson
Stevens
The PRESIDING OFFICER. With respect to the prospective passage of
House Joint Resolution 170, the yeas are 64, and the nays are 24. And
the joint resolution is deemed passed.
So the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 170) was deemed passed.
Mr. HATFIELD. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote by which
the joint resolution was deemed passed.
Mr. HARKIN. I move to lay that motion on the table.
The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.
Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I will take only a few moments. I know the
chairman of the Appropriations Committee has pending business.
Mr. President, I wanted to comment a little bit on the continuing
resolution that we just passed--and to express my dismay and perhaps a
little bit of frustration at what has happened here in the last week or
so, and with this continuing resolution.
I took the floor a couple of weeks ago. I said March madness is in
full swing around the country with all of the basketball games going on
with the men's final four and the women's NCAA. But beyond that, Mr.
President, in school after school in Iowa and across this country
school administrators and school boards are wrestling with the decision
about which teachers will lose their jobs and which students will not
get title I reading assistance.
They are contemplating what vocational educational activities will go
by the wayside; how to deal with the cuts in the Safe and Drug-Free
School Program. The list goes on.
In my State of Iowa, school districts must send the layoff notices by
April 30, a mere 6 days after this resolution expires.
That means school districts will have less than a week to make
important decisions about how many teachers they will be able to keep
on the payroll, how many kids will be denied the opportunity to improve
their reading and math skills. In the next 4 weeks, the uncertainty
about the level of funding for our schools will cause problems for many
families. Teachers and their families are worried about their jobs and
parents are worried about their kids and about being denied the most
basic help they can get.
Mr. President, I am not going to read the whole letter, but I have
here a letter from a parent of a child who is in the title I program.
The letter is dated March 7. These parents are saying that their son
has had tremendous help and tremendous improvement because of title I,
and she said:
I wish you could personally follow our son's progress. This
program has truly been a godsend for him and for us. We feel
confident he can attend future grades with an excellent
attitude toward school because of what title I has gained for
him--most importantly, his self-esteem and attitude. Yes, he
is still going to struggle some but not as severely as it
would be without the aid of chapter 1.
For these parents and for our children and school boards and school
districts across the country what we are doing today really is not much
help.
I have here two articles that were in the newspaper in Cedar Rapids,
IA, the
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Cedar Rapids Gazette. The first one is dated February 27, and it says
``6 Schools To Lose Remedial Reading.''
``Cedar Rapids district cites expected $350,000 cut in Federal
funds,'' in the title I program. That is February 27.
Shortly after that, the Senate adopted the Specter-Harkin amendment,
which was supported, I might add, on this floor with a strong
bipartisan vote, 84 votes in favor of the Specter-Harkin amendment, to
put the money back in for title I and other education programs. So now
here is the followup article on March 14 in the Cedar Rapids Gazette.
``Senate Restores Reading Funds.'' And it talks about the Specter-
Harkin amendment, that it was approved 84 to 16.
Well, I guess tomorrow there will be another story in the Cedar
Rapids Gazette; they will go right back to this: ``Cedar Rapids To Lose
Remedial Reading.''
What kind of a yo-yo is this to these people? These are parents like
the one who just wrote me this letter about their son who has been in
title I, still in title I. What are they to think? What are the
teachers to think? How about the school boards? Pink slips are going to
be going out pretty soon.
I had the Farm Bureau in here this week. I talked at a breakfast to
my Farm Bureau members. After it was over, I had a couple of the people
who were there at the Farm Bureau meeting come up to me. They did not
want to talk about farm programs. They wanted to talk about what we are
going to do about title I, because they serve on the local school
boards and they saw what was happening to their funding cuts and how
much they needed this program. Their basic question was, ``What should
we do?''
I had to answer, ``Well, I thought we were going to get the
appropriations bill through that would have the funding for you.'' I
was confident we would do that. Well, today, with this short-term CR,
we do not have it. We go back down to the lower levels on title I
funding.
Mr. President, that is why I voted no on this--not that I wish to
shut the Government down, but we were very close to having an
agreement. This is the 12th CR of this year--the 12th one. It is a
prescription for disaster for our kids. If the cuts in this bill are
allowed to continue, the Iowa Department of Education estimates that
across the State, 7,300 fewer students will get title I assistance; 200
teachers will be laid off. This scenario will be repeated in every
single State and school district across the country: 40,000 teachers
will be laid off nationwide as a result of this $1.1 billion cut in
title I.
Mr. President, the sixth national education goal calls upon us to
ensure that by the turn of the century every adult American will be
literate and will possess the knowledge and skills necessary to compete
in the global economy, but the deep cut in job training programs in
this bill is a retreat from that goal. These cuts could not come at a
worse time. You can hardly pick up a newspaper or turn on the evening
news without seeing yet another story about downsizing some company,
workers are put out of work, dislocations caused by downsizing.
Last year, JTPA assisted 105 workers who lost their jobs in the small
town of LeMars, IA; 85 individuals employed in the small town of
Sergeant Bluff, IA. The cuts in retraining for dislocated workers means
that next year 300 fewer Iowans will benefit from such assistance.
In the Senate, we acted in a bipartisan manner to correct these
problems. As I said, Senator Specter and I worked together with the
assistance of Senator Hatfield. We crafted a bipartisan compromise to
restore most of the cuts to these education and training programs.
Again, as I said, the Senate passed the amendment 84 to 16. It was a
powerful signal from this body on a bipartisan basis that we wanted to
move ahead and fund these programs, get the money out, and send a clear
signal to our schools, our teachers, and our parents across the country
that we were going to fund these programs.
Well, we were meeting, and I must say that Senator Specter sat there
day after day in meetings with our House counterparts. I would join
him. We had already worked out our differences. We did not have any
disagreements. But we could not quite seem to get over a lot of these
hurdles.
Finally, we worked out our differences. We had our agreements made.
But there were some riders that were attached, riders that more
appropriately belong in the authorizing committees, not the
Appropriations Committee, that held this up. Therefore, we could not
reach an agreement. But we were very close.
Again, I wish to pay my respects and my thanks to the chairman of our
Appropriations Committee. I was there last night. We were all dogged
tired at about 1 a.m. in the morning, and he wanted to continue. He
wanted to finish it, because I know the Senator from Oregon realizes
how important these programs are. And he was reflecting the will of
this body, the 84 votes that we had, to make sure that we reached an
agreement and moved ahead.
I daresay, I do not know how many hours and how many days the Senator
from Oregon put in in the last 2 or 3 weeks trying to get this thing
put together, working, as I said, to the midnight hour and beyond last
night, to make sure we did not have these draconian cuts. All of that
work we have done, all the work that we did in a bipartisan fashion in
the Senate, all of the work that Senator Hatfield has done has now been
thrown overboard. All of us lost in this bill which continues the
draconian cuts of the previous 11 continuing resolutions.
We were close. I am deeply disappointed. I heard last night--we had a
break in our conference last night, and I heard some rumblings from
people that there was going to be a short-term CR. So I expressed my
opinion in the conference last night. I said: Here we are; we are
working trying to reach these agreements, coming very close, but if the
rug is going to be pulled out from underneath us by a short-term CR,
then why are we here?
I feel that if we are going to continue like this, then what use is
it of the Appropriations Committee to try to hammer out these
agreements. These are tough negotiations. And yet we reached all the
numbers. We had no problems with our numbers. We had agreed on all of
the numbers. We had agreed on the offsets. We had a few items, as I
said, some disagreements on riders which more appropriately belong with
the authorizing committee, not the Appropriations Committee, and as the
chairman of the Appropriations Committee knows, if the authorizing
committees would do their work and get the authorizing down, we would
not have the riders on our bill holding us up.
So I thank Chairman Hatfield for his doggedness and his
determination, and I am just sorry that the rug got pulled out from
underneath us. Those are not his words; those are mine. But that is
exactly how I feel. I hoped before that that would be the last CR. I
hope this is the last CR. If it is not, we are really going to be in
tough shape, and I think a lot of our school districts around the
country now are just going to throw up their hands in despair; they
thought they were going to have the cuts. Then they thought they were
going to be restored. I know from talking to people in Iowa that they
thought they could now go ahead and plan for their schools next year
because of that overwhelming vote we had in the Senate. Well, now they
do not know what to do.
Mr. President, this is no way to run the Government. This is no way
to govern. It is totally and absolutely irresponsible. And all I can
say is, I sure hope this is the last short-term CR. I hope the good
work we have done on appropriations we can hold onto, that when we come
back from the Easter break, rather than starting all over again, we can
pick up where we were and hopefully have this resolution done
expeditiously so that we can get our funding out for education, worker
training, dislocated workers, Head Start, and all the other programs so
vital to the future of our country.
Mr. President, I thank you, and I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Gorton). The Senator from Oregon.
Mr. HATFIELD. Mr. President, I would like to express my thanks to the
Senator from Iowa for his analysis of the situation we find ourselves
in as the Appropriations Committee. I would also like to again
reiterate that we have 13 appropriations subcommittees. In other words,
we have 13 subcommittees with chairs for each of those subcommittees,
ranking members for each
[[Page S3198]]
one of those subcommittees. I think our committee is unique in that
sense, because we do not bring a bill to the floor unless it has been a
bill developed on a bipartisan basis within each of those
subcommittees.
Mr. Harkin, our colleague from Iowa, was formerly chairman of the
Labor-HHS Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee, which now is
chaired by Senator Specter, of Pennsylvania. So he brought into that
partnership that kind of background and understanding, as we have on
most every one of our subcommittees. The chair is now being occupied by
the Senator from Washington State, who chairs the Interior
Subcommittee. His ranking member is former chairman, Senator Byrd.
So, in effect, we have been jointly producing these bills; it is
bipartisan, and giving the Senate a very strong position. Then, when we
went to conference, we had 40 Democrats and 39 Republicans voting for
the Senate product, including both the leaders, the Republican leader
and the Democratic leader.
Sure, we knew we were going to be in tough negotiations, but,
nevertheless, we had a great number of accomplishments. We had, as the
Senator knows, 12 of our 13 subcommittees involved, most of them with
language, but with 5 unresolved appropriation bills. We were able to
reduce the five to two. In other words, we closed the chapters on three
of them. We closed the chapter on a couple of the others that were in
the language area. So that, in effect, when we come back on April 15
and we take up the unfinished business of the Labor-HHS, for which the
Senator from Iowa is the ranking member, we will have the figures, the
dollars, pretty well resolved, as the Senator has said. We are now
talking about language, riders.
I wish we did not have them. I wish we would have those issues taken
up by the authorizers where they belong. But there is a trend line
upward, by the fact that the authorizing actions have become very, very
slow. As an example, the Endangered Species Act; 4 years ago it
expired. We, in the Appropriations Committee, have been keeping it
funded and keeping it going.
I could say that when there was an effort made by a few of my
colleagues to convince me, as chairman of the Appropriations Committee,
that we should not fund expired authorization programs, I did not have
any idea what the scope of that might be, so I went to CBO. I asked CBO
to give us a quick analysis of the expired authorizations that we were
continuing to fund. Mr. President, $95 billion is what they came up
with for their estimate on expired authorizations; a goodly percentage
of them in the Justice Department, and particularly those relating to
fighting crime--expired authorizations.
So we, in effect, have almost taken on double our responsibility, of
not only funding but, assuming that in that funding we authorize for
that year, we extend the authorization that has expired. It is not a
task that we have desired or we have asked for.
I like to always remind our colleagues, no other committee but the
Appropriations Committee has to pass legislation. Every other committee
can consider authorization, but there is no basic command to perform.
Only the Appropriations Committee must keep the Government running. We
have to pass a bill--in fact, 13 of them. So, lots of times, knowing
that, we get piggybacked. Others who are finding an inability to either
extend authorization or renew authorization or deal with authorizing
items come and piggyback on the appropriations bill. We are taking on
those duties, but I am saying to the Senator, there are a lot of
reasons why this situation becomes increasingly difficult.
I thank the colleagues on the committee. I have never seen a more
dedicated group working together on a bipartisan basis to do their duty
as I have with the subcommittees of our Appropriations Committee and
the staff. I just cannot pay too high a tribute to the staffs on both
sides that assist the members. It is a collegial experience.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to proceed as in morning
business in order to introduce a bill.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The Senator from Oregon is recognized.
Mr. HATFIELD. I thank the Chair.
(The remarks of Mr. Hatfield pertaining to the introduction of S.
1662 are located in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced
Bills and Joint Resolutions.'')
Mr. LAUTENBERG addressed the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Does the Senator from Oregon yield the floor?
Mr. HATFIELD. Mr. President, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey.
Mr. LAUTENBERG. Thank you, Mr. President.
____________________