[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 54 (Wednesday, April 24, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H3745-H3746]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          FURTHER CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS, FISCAL YEAR 1996

  Mr. LIVINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 411, I call 
up the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 175) making further continuing 
appropriations for the fiscal year 1996, and for other purposes, and 
ask for its immediate consideration in the House.
  The Clerk read the title of the joint resolution.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 411, House 
Joint Resolution 175 is modified by striking title II.
  The text of the joint resolution, as modified, is as follows:

                             H.J. Res. 175

       Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
     United States of America in Congress assembled,

                   TITLE I--CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS

       Sec. 101. Public Law 104-99 is further amended by striking 
     out ``April 24, 1996'' in sections 106(c), 112, 126(c), 
     202(c), and 214 and inserting in lieu thereof ``April 25, 
     1996''; and that Public Law 104-92 is further amended by 
     striking out ``April 24, 1996'' in section 106(c) and 
     inserting in lieu thereof ``April 25, 1996''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Louisiana [Mr. Livingston] and the gentleman from Wisconsin [Mr. Obey] 
will each control 30 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Louisiana [Mr. Livingston].


                             General Leave

  Mr. LIVINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their 
remarks on House Joint Resolution 175, and that I may be permitted to 
include extraneous and tabular material.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Louisiana?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. LIVINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I hope that it will not be necessary to use anywhere 
near the time allotted for this measure. This is a 24-hour continuing 
resolution intended primarily to allow the negotiators in the 
conference between the House and Senate Republicans and Democrats to 
finalize the negotiations with the White House and Mr. Panetta, the 
Chief of Staff, on the omnibus wrap-up appropriations bill for fiscal 
year 1996.
  This wrap-up bill would conclude all of the remaining as yet unsigned 
into law subcommittee bills, namely Commerce-Justice-State, Interior, 
VA-HUD, Labor-Health, and the District of Columbia. The intent would be 
that, because I think that we have narrowed the issues now, within the 
next few hours hopefully we can finalize the deliberations on all of 
the remaining outstanding issues of difference between the White House 
and both houses of Congress, and that we will indeed have a bill ready 
to bring to the House of Representatives tomorrow morning after going 
to the Committee on Rules.
  That is my expectation at this point. There are still some real and 
meaningful differences, between all the parties, between the Houses, 
and between the Congress and the White House, but my expectation is 
those differences will be resolved in a matter of hours and that we 
will have a final agreement to bring here to the floor. If that is not 
to be, then we will have other statements to make later on, but that is 
our plan at this point. I would hope that, frankly, everything I have 
said will come to pass.

  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, this is, what, the 13th continuing resolution? 
Let me simply say that if this continuing resolution were for longer 
than 1 day, I would not support it, because it would be yet another 
confession of futility on the part of the Congress. But the gentleman 
from Louisiana [Mr. Livingston], the distinguished chairman of the 
committee, is correct. We are that close to having agreement on the 
omnibus continuing resolution, which would finally, finally, put to bed 
all of the appropriation issues for the fiscal year into which we are 
now halfway.
  Let me just say that I think Members have had a right to be 
concerned, because school districts are being squeezed. You still have 
the problem of some 40,000 title I teachers who are about to be pink-
slipped if there is not a resolution of the problem.
  The conferees have met ad nauseam the last 3 days, actually since 
Friday, and I think at this point virtually every issue seems to be 
resolved except the issues surrounding the environmental riders and two 
other issues, which I expect can be resolved.
  So it is my hope that when we reconvene meetings with Mr. Panetta at 
2 or 2:30 today, that we will have agreement. To do so, the White House 
has made clear the remaining environmental riders, which are simply 
causing problems, will need to be dropped, or at least reshaped in a 
way that allows the President to protect the public interest as he sees 
it.

                              {time}  1200

  And if that is accomplished, then we can bring that bill to the floor 
and finally finish this and move on to next year's appropriation 
matters.
  It is my deep hope that that will, in fact, occur, but I thought it 
was going to happen yesterday but at 9 o'clock last night we were 
further apart than we were at 5 o'clock in the afternoon which I find 
interesting and incredible and frustrating but I guess it sometimes 
happens in legislative bodies.
  So I simply hope that cooler heads will prevail and we will wind up 
with those riders being dropped so that we can bring legislation to the 
floor which solves the problem.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from 
Wisconsin [Mr. Kleczka].
  Mr. KLECZKA. Mr. Speaker, let me thank my colleague for yielding time 
to me. When the rule was before the body to bring up this continuing 
resolution, the gentleman from California [Mr. Dreier] was very lengthy 
and eloquent in his support of a provision that was in the resolution 
but was struck by adoption of the rule. That provision had to deal with 
the resolve for a problem we are facing with the savings and loan 
insurance fund, which is the SAIF fund.
  It was kind of surprising to me that the gentleman from California 
spoke in strong support of it even though the Committee on Rules that 
he served on did pull it out of the product that we are ready to vote 
on the floor.
  I would like the chairman of the committee, Mr. Livingston, to 
possibly yield for a question, because I am aware that he also 
supported this provision. Is it possible that the long-term continuing 
resolution that we should be seeing hopefully tomorrow would contain a 
fix for that very knotty problem?
  Mr. LIVINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. KLECZKA. I yield to the gentleman from Louisiana.
  Mr. LIVINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I would say to the gentleman it is not 
my intention to put that on the bill tomorrow. We have a very tough 
situation on a bill that has been pounded out over months and months, 
and, frankly, I do not think it can bear any more weight. So I would, 
frankly, be not inclined to put it on.
  Mr. KLECZKA. Well, Mr. Speaker, it seems surprising to me that the 
gentleman from California, who serves on the Committee on Rules, was 
supporting a provision although he supported pulling it out of this 
resolution. If I had known that was the opinion of the chair of the 
committee, I surely would have tried to object to adoption of the rule, 
which we have just adopted in the House, and called for a roll call to 
see if we could not retain that in this short-term CR.
  It seems it is an important issue, which I think we have to address 
before the end of the session, because it will

[[Page H3746]]

just keep floating around out there. And, naturally, it is looking for 
a vehicle to be attached to because as a stand-alone, chances are it 
will not come before us.
  So I am very disappointed to hear it will not be a part of the 
product that we will be addressing probably tomorrow. I thank the 
gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute to say that I hope 
that by this afternoon we will have a resolution of this long-term 
problem. It would be a shame if the continued existence of these 
legislative provisions on environmental issues would prevent us from 
reaching agreement on the budget, and I hope that they are dropped so 
that we can proceed to give the country what it needed 6 months ago, 
which is completion of congressional action on all of these 
appropriation bills.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. LIVINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Radanovich). Pursuant to House 
Resolution 411, the previous question is ordered on the joint 
resolution, as modified.
  The question is on the engrossment and third reading of the joint 
resolution.
  The joint resolution was ordered to be engrossed and read a third 
time, and was read the third time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the passage of the joint 
resolution.
  The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that 
the ayes appeared to have it.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 400, 
nays 14, not voting 18, as follows:

                             [Roll No. 129]

                               YEAS--400

     Abercrombie
     Ackerman
     Andrews
     Archer
     Armey
     Bachus
     Baesler
     Baker (CA)
     Baker (LA)
     Baldacci
     Ballenger
     Barcia
     Barr
     Barrett (NE)
     Barrett (WI)
     Bartlett
     Bass
     Bateman
     Beilenson
     Bentsen
     Bereuter
     Bevill
     Bilbray
     Bilirakis
     Bishop
     Bliley
     Blute
     Boehlert
     Boehner
     Bonilla
     Bonior
     Bono
     Borski
     Boucher
     Brewster
     Browder
     Brown (CA)
     Brown (FL)
     Brown (OH)
     Brownback
     Bryant (TN)
     Bunn
     Bunning
     Burr
     Burton
     Buyer
     Callahan
     Calvert
     Camp
     Campbell
     Canady
     Cardin
     Castle
     Chabot
     Chambliss
     Chapman
     Chenoweth
     Christensen
     Chrysler
     Clay
     Clayton
     Clement
     Clinger
     Coburn
     Coleman
     Collins (GA)
     Collins (IL)
     Collins (MI)
     Combest
     Condit
     Conyers
     Cooley
     Costello
     Cox
     Cramer
     Crane
     Crapo
     Cremeans
     Cubin
     Cunningham
     Danner
     Davis
     de la Garza
     Deal
     DeFazio
     DeLauro
     DeLay
     Dellums
     Deutsch
     Diaz-Balart
     Dickey
     Dicks
     Dingell
     Dixon
     Doggett
     Dooley
     Doolittle
     Dornan
     Doyle
     Dreier
     Duncan
     Dunn
     Durbin
     Edwards
     Ehlers
     Ehrlich
     Emerson
     Engel
     English
     Ensign
     Eshoo
     Evans
     Everett
     Ewing
     Farr
     Fattah
     Fawell
     Fields (LA)
     Fields (TX)
     Filner
     Flake
     Flanagan
     Foley
     Forbes
     Ford
     Fowler
     Fox
     Frank (MA)
     Franks (CT)
     Franks (NJ)
     Frelinghuysen
     Frisa
     Frost
     Funderburk
     Furse
     Gallegly
     Ganske
     Gejdenson
     Gekas
     Gephardt
     Geren
     Gilchrest
     Gillmor
     Gilman
     Gonzalez
     Goodlatte
     Goodling
     Gordon
     Goss
     Graham
     Green (TX)
     Greene (UT)
     Greenwood
     Gunderson
     Gutierrez
     Gutknecht
     Hall (OH)
     Hall (TX)
     Hamilton
     Hancock
     Hansen
     Harman
     Hastert
     Hastings (WA)
     Hayes
     Hayworth
     Hefley
     Hefner
     Heineman
     Herger
     Hilleary
     Hilliard
     Hinchey
     Hobson
     Hoekstra
     Hoke
     Holden
     Horn
     Hostettler
     Houghton
     Hoyer
     Hunter
     Hutchinson
     Inglis
     Istook
     Jackson (IL)
     Jackson-Lee (TX)
     Jacobs
     Jefferson
     Johnson (CT)
     Johnson (SD)
     Johnson, E. B.
     Johnson, Sam
     Jones
     Kanjorski
     Kaptur
     Kasich
     Kelly
     Kennedy (MA)
     Kennedy (RI)
     Kennelly
     Kildee
     Kim
     King
     Kingston
     Kleczka
     Klink
     Klug
     Knollenberg
     Kolbe
     LaFalce
     LaHood
     Lantos
     Largent
     Latham
     LaTourette
     Lazio
     Leach
     Levin
     Lewis (CA)
     Lewis (GA)
     Lewis (KY)
     Lightfoot
     Lincoln
     Linder
     Lipinski
     Livingston
     LoBiondo
     Lofgren
     Longley
     Lowey
     Lucas
     Luther
     Maloney
     Manton
     Manzullo
     Markey
     Martinez
     Martini
     Mascara
     Matsui
     McCarthy
     McCollum
     McCrery
     McDermott
     McHugh
     McInnis
     McIntosh
     McKeon
     McKinney
     McNulty
     Meehan
     Meek
     Metcalf
     Meyers
     Mica
     Millender-McDonald
     Miller (CA)
     Miller (FL)
     Minge
     Mink
     Moakley
     Molinari
     Mollohan
     Montgomery
     Moorhead
     Moran
     Morella
     Murtha
     Myers
     Myrick
     Nadler
     Neal
     Nethercutt
     Neumann
     Ney
     Norwood
     Nussle
     Oberstar
     Obey
     Olver
     Ortiz
     Orton
     Packard
     Pallone
     Pastor
     Paxon
     Payne (NJ)
     Payne (VA)
     Pelosi
     Peterson (FL)
     Peterson (MN)
     Petri
     Pickett
     Pombo
     Pomeroy
     Porter
     Portman
     Poshard
     Pryce
     Quillen
     Quinn
     Radanovich
     Rahall
     Ramstad
     Rangel
     Reed
     Regula
     Richardson
     Rivers
     Roberts
     Roemer
     Rogers
     Rohrabacher
     Ros-Lehtinen
     Rose
     Roth
     Roukema
     Roybal-Allard
     Royce
     Rush
     Sabo
     Salmon
     Sanders
     Sanford
     Sawyer
     Saxton
     Schiff
     Schumer
     Scott
     Seastrand
     Sensenbrenner
     Serrano
     Shadegg
     Shaw
     Shays
     Shuster
     Sisisky
     Skaggs
     Skeen
     Skelton
     Slaughter
     Smith (MI)
     Smith (NJ)
     Smith (TX)
     Smith (WA)
     Solomon
     Souder
     Spence
     Spratt
     Stark
     Stenholm
     Stockman
     Stokes
     Studds
     Stump
     Stupak
     Talent
     Tanner
     Tate
     Tauzin
     Taylor (MS)
     Taylor (NC)
     Tejeda
     Thomas
     Thompson
     Thornberry
     Thornton
     Tiahrt
     Torkildsen
     Torres
     Torricelli
     Traficant
     Upton
     Visclosky
     Volkmer
     Vucanovich
     Walker
     Walsh
     Wamp
     Ward
     Waters
     Watt (NC)
     Watts (OK)
     Waxman
     Weldon (FL)
     Weldon (PA)
     Weller
     White
     Whitfield
     Wicker
     Wise
     Wolf
     Woolsey
     Wynn
     Yates
     Young (AK)
     Young (FL)
     Zeliff
     Zimmer

                                NAYS--14

     Barton
     Becerra
     Clyburn
     Coble
     Gibbons
     Hastings (FL)
     Hyde
     McHale
     Owens
     Scarborough
     Stearns
     Thurman
     Velazquez
     Williams

                             NOT VOTING--18

     Allard
     Berman
     Bryant (TX)
     Coyne
     Fazio
     Foglietta
     Johnston
     Laughlin
     McDade
     Menendez
     Oxley
     Parker
     Riggs
     Schaefer
     Schroeder
     Towns
     Vento
     Wilson

                              {time}  1222

  Mr. STEARNS changed his vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''
  Mr. DORNAN changed his vote from ``nay'' to ``yea.''
  So the joint resolution was passed.
  The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                          ____________________