[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 56 (Monday, April 29, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E657-E658]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   IN TRIBUTE TO SGT. CHARLES NICOLLS

                                 ______


                             HON. SAM FARR

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, April 29, 1996

  Mr. FARR of California. Mr. Speaker, on May 4, 1996, the Cabrillo 
College Police Officers Association will host a retirement party for 
Sgt. Charles ``Chuck'' Nicolls in recognition of his 27 years of 
service to the students, faculty, and fellow employees of Cabrillo 
College, located in Aptos, CA.
  Mr. Nicolls has served the people of California as a firefighter and 
police officer for 27 years. He was employed by the city of Modesto as 
a firefighter and fire company engineer from August 1964 to February 
1969.
  He then served as a police officer, motorcycle officer, and 
undercover narcotics officer from February 1969 to April 1985, often 
under perilous conditions. Sergeant Nicolls then served the Cabrillo 
Community College from September 1989 to March 1996, as a police 
officer, training manager, administrative sergeant, and the ``Chief of 
Barb B-Q's'' for all special events. Sergeant Nicolls established a 
training site at Cabrillo College for the California Motorcycle Safety 
Training Program. Sergeant Nicolls stayed on-duty for 26 hours after 
the Loma Prieto earthquake.
  On February 15, 1995 Sergeant Nicolls was awarded American Police 
Hall of Fame Distinguished Medal of Honor and citations for his 
contributions to the community. Throughout his whole career, Sergeant 
Nicolls has consistently demonstrated a sense of honor and duty, rare 
in today's world.

[[Page E658]]



                         TRUTH IN BUDGETING ACT

                                 ______


                               speech of

                          HON. CARDISS COLLINS

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 17, 1996

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 842) to 
     provide off-budget treatment for the Highway Trust Fund, the 
     Airport and Airway Trust Fund, the Inland Waterways Trust 
     Fund, and the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund:

  Mrs. COLLINS of Illinois. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to H.R. 
842 and urge my colleagues to reject this legislation. While I 
understand and support the need for significant investments in our 
Nation's transportation infrastructure, I do not think that Congress 
should be unfairly protecting transportation spending from the current 
fiscal realities we face. The plain fact is that, if we pass this bill 
and take the transportation trust funds off-budget, we will be forced 
to cut remaining domestic discretionary on-budget programs deeply to 
make up the difference.
  Sure, highways, airports, bridges, and roads are critical to the 
long-term economic strength of the Nation. But are they more important 
than say, education, health care, or the environment?
  The present unified Federal budgeting system includes all Federal 
spending, revenues, and borrowing within its totals, exempting only 
Social Security and the Postal Service from its calculations. This 
system, although not flawless, provides us with the clearest picture 
currently available regarding the impact of the Federal budget on the 
economy, and allows us to objectively prioritize and weigh Federal 
spending needs.
  Even Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has been vocal in his 
opposition to moving the transportation trust funds off-budget. He has 
said such an action ``would lead to fragmentation in the budgeting 
process'' and would ``weaken the ability of Congress to prioritize and 
control spending effectively.''
  If we take transportation trust funds off-budget, who next in 
Washington will be seeking similar relief? What interest groups will be 
flooding the hall of Congress seeking similar preferential treatment 
for their targeted trust fund dollars? One-third of total on-budget 
Federal spending is in trust fund programs, 160 programs across the 
board. Should these other programs also be taken off-budget, we would 
have total chaos in our Federal budgeting process and a completely 
disjointed view of the government's financial state.
  The Office of Management and Budget has also weighed in on this 
issue, emphasizing that H.R. 842 would result in not only $20 billion 
in additional transportation spending over the next 5 years, but also 
offsetting cuts in other programs above and beyond this amount due to 
the lowering of discretionary spending caps by law to reflect the off-
budget status of the transportation trust funds. This is inequitable 
and surely no way to tackle the tough budgeting choices we in this 
esteemed body were sent to Washington to make.
  Finally let me say that the argument used by proponents of this bill 
that the Federal Government is somehow misusing highway tax dollars to 
hide the true size of the deficit and fool the American public is 
unfounded. In fact, since it was created 40 years ago, the highway 
trust fund has given more money back to the States than has been paid 
into the fund through tax revenues. In addition, since 1980, the 
Federal Government has actually spent about $14 billion more on highway 
trust fund initiatives than it has collected in taxes.
  Again, Mr. Chairman, we need to make tough choices in Congress 
regarding our spending and investment policies. H.R. 842 exempts 
transportation from these tough choices. As the old saying goes, you 
can't have your cake and eat it too. I urge my colleagues to oppose 
this legislation.

                          ____________________