[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 113 (Monday, July 29, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H8601-H8602]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      NO MORE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWNS

  Mr. GEKAS. Mr. Speaker, no more Government shutdowns. That seems like 
a silly warning in the middle of the summer, when the end of the fiscal 
year still is 2 months ahead of us. The fiscal year, as everyone knows, 
for the Congress of the United States, for the Government of the United 
States, ends on September 30. If indeed there be no budget enacted by 
that date, then the next day the Government has to shut down, unless 
one of two things could occur: One, a full budget would be passed in 
the last hours so that a new budget would be in place on the first day 
of the new fiscal year, October 1; or the Congress, in its wisdom, 
along with an agreement from the White House to issue a temporary 
funding stream to allow the negotiators more time to bring about a full 
budget, would enter into a continuing resolution, a temporary funding 
mechanism, from October 1, to, let us say, November 1, giving another 
month to the negotiators to bring about what we all hope would be the 
case, a full budget for the next fiscal year.
  But what has happened quite often, especially in the last year, and 
dating way back to 1985, in my own experience in the Congress, the 
Congress has failed to bring about a budget by September 30, and has 
had to indulge in these temporary funding measures. At the end of each 
one of those, when there is a breakdown in negotiations, then there 
occurs the threat of a Government shutdown or an actual shutdown.
  Let me give you the most egregious example of what occurred when, in 
one previous session, the Congress failed to bring about a budget by 
September 30.
  Our youngsters, the members of the Armed Forces in that era, 1991, 
were gathering in the deserts of the Middle East under Desert Shield, 
the deployment of our troops in preparation for Desert Storm.
  In December 1990, they were all gathered, 300,000 or 400,000 strong, 
our young men and women, our fellow citizens, our Armed Forces, and in 
the middle of their preparation to do battle with the forces of Saddam 
Hussein, there was a Government shutdown.
  Now, is that not a sad thing to contemplate, to have the Armed Forces 
ready to do battle, and their Government, our country, shuts down its 
Government?
  This did not deter them, this event back home, from continuing to 
gear up for the eventual battle. But the point is, how can we as a 
people and Congress continue to sustain the threat of a Government 
shutdown, for any purpose? Not only does it look awful, and it is 
awful, but then there are payless paydays for people who work for the 
Federal Government, there is the threat of Social Security checks and 
veterans benefits and other matters on which fellow citizens rely which 
would come to a sleekening halt, or special measures would have to take 
place to do them.

  Anyway, we have to end Government shutdowns. Now, I have proposed, 
since 1988 I believe, almost every year, and I have gone before the 
relevant committees to discuss this issue, and I came up with a 
proposal. My fear is that it will not pass because it makes common 
sense, but I am going to keep trying.
  Here is the way this works: If on September 30, the end of the fiscal 
year, there is no new budget in place, then on October 1, the next day, 
automatically under my proposal there would be reenacted and will come 
into play last year's budget automatically, until a new budget can be 
enacted.
  That means that there will never be a Government shutdown as long as 
we operate in the Congress of the United States. Because even if they 
enter into a continuing resolution, the temporary funding mechanism, at 
the end of that period, if they still have not produced a budget, where 
today we would have the threat of a Government shutdown, we would have 
an instant replay of the then current temporary funding measure, thus 
Government would go on until the budget is put into its final face.
  That is what I have proposed. Now, there are some questions. Does 
this rob the appropriators, the people whose job it is to produce the 
appropriations bills, to have them signed by the President? We think 
not.
   Mr. Speaker, it is time to end Government shutdowns.

[[Page H8602]]



                        MESSAGE FROM THE SENATE

  A message from the Senate by Ms. McDevitt, one of its clerks, 
announced that the Senate had passed with an amendment in which the 
concurrence of the House is requested, a bill of the House of the 
following title:

       H.R. 3540. An act making appropriations for foreign 
     operations, export financing, and related programs for the 
     fiscal year ending September 30, 1997, and for other 
     purposes.

  The message also announced that the Senate insists upon its amendment 
to the bill (H.R. 3540) ``An act making appropriations for foreign 
operations, export financing, and related programs for the fiscal year 
ending September 30, 1997, and for other purposes,'' requests a 
conference with the House of Representatives on the disagreeing votes 
of the two Houses thereon, and appoints Mr. McConnell, Mr. Specter, Mr. 
Mack, Mr. Jeffords, Mr. Gregg, Mr. Shelby, Mr. Bennett, Mr. Hatfield, 
Mr. Leahy, Mr. Inouye, Mr. Lautenberg, Mr. Harkin, Ms. Mikulski, Mrs. 
Murray, and Mr. Byrd to be the conferees on the part of the Senate.

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