[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 84 (Monday, June 10, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S5997]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         THE BUDGET RESOLUTION

  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I am disappointed that we could not work 
out an agreement with the minority that would allow us to complete 
action on the conference agreement on the budget today. I had hoped we 
could do that so our distinguished majority leader would have an 
opportunity before he left the Senate to cast his vote in favor of this 
budget resolution and a balanced budget by the year 2002. The 
conference agreement on the 1997 budget resolution was completed last 
Thursday evening and filed Friday morning. Copies of the conference 
report have been available since early this morning. The House of 
Representatives Rules Committee will act this evening to report a rule 
that will allow the House to act on the conference report tomorrow 
morning and complete action by noon.
  Normally, we would simply call up the conference report, discuss the 
conference report, since it would not be subject to amendment, yield 
back the statutory 10 hours of time and vote on final passage. Without 
consent to the contrary, however, here in the Senate, if we were to act 
on a conference report before the House has acted, the conference 
report would be subjected to unlimited recommittal motions, and the 
minority is aware of this opportunity to subject the Senate, and I say 
Leader Dole, to an unlimited number of such motions. Therefore, they 
have not been willing to grant us consent that would allow us to do 
what we are going to do tomorrow. Once the House sends us this, we will 
take it up, and obviously there will be no recommittal motions in 
order, as I understand it, at that point.
  We were trying to get the minority to let us start that process today 
and perhaps complete this before the leader leaves sometime tomorrow, 
around 12 or 1 o'clock. It means he will not have a chance to vote on 
it. It does not mean that there will be anything happen to the budget 
resolution. I assume we will have his successor Senator voting with us, 
as we have had him.
  I will have more opportunity tomorrow to discuss the significance of 
this budget resolution and what it does. I might just start with one 
concept for everybody to understand. On the discretionary 
appropriations, which has been the subject of an awful lot of debate 
last year which caused many appropriations bills to be vetoed by the 
President and caused the closure of Government from time to time during 
that long process of trying to get appropriations completed, we have 
resolved our differences between the House and Senate.
  We have produced a budget resolution that, essentially, has all of 
the domestic discretionary programs combined at a freeze--same level as 
last year, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That is the 
number that we agreed upon. That means if we take all the riders off 
those appropriations bills, and I understand that there is some 
movement in that direction, we can clearly be sending to the President 
appropriations bills that he ought to sign. Clearly, the American 
people will understand it very easily. The Republicans do not want to 
reduce spending. They want to freeze it. They are not out there to 
close down Government. They just want to say, in a very difficult year, 
we should freeze the expenditures of the appropriated accounts at last 
year's level. That is what we will be doing. That is what the 
appropriations bills are going to reflect in the next 5, 6, 7 weeks.

  Hopefully, if we get those done, we can finish our work early or even 
ahead of time with reference to the appropriations bills which caused 
so much commotion last year and so much ill-will and ill-feeling 
between many people in the country and this various series of vetoes 
and closures. That will be the essence of the Republican approach. 
Obviously, big savings come in the entitlement reform programs. We will 
move those through in due course. Once again, we believe we are on the 
right path. We will discuss what we think the President's approach to 
Medicare has been. Clearly, he is playing a major shell game with this 
big program that the senior citizens need so desperately to have 
attended by way of reform.
  We will get into those details tomorrow. I have not sought approval 
from any of the leadership here to make this statement, but, frankly, I 
am very hopeful when we finally get on this budget resolution tomorrow, 
that even though there are 10 hours of debate equally divided, we will 
finish tomorrow. No motions are in order, no amendments are in order. I 
see no reason why we cannot finish it tomorrow, even if we take it up 
sometime in the middle of the afternoon tomorrow. That ought to be 
plenty of time to debate it and finish tomorrow to get on with other 
Senate work.
  Mr. GRASSLEY addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.

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