[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

[[Page S3196]]

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

[[Page S3197]]

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.

                          ____________________