[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 131 (Friday, September 20, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11082-S11084]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
A SAFETY NET
Mr. COVERDELL. Mr. President, we understand on our side that we are
drawing near the most intense period of the 1996 elections, but we feel
very strongly that we should set the politics aside for the election
process, and here on the floor of the Senate and in the Halls of
Congress create a safety net from politics for our soldiers in Iraq and
in Bosnia or wherever they may be, for our disaster victims that have
just suffered the ravages of the hurricane coming out of the Caribbean
in the Atlantic and tearing its way through North Carolina and other
regions of our country, and, obviously, for our children and our
seniors.
In other words, Mr. President, this is a time to put the people
first, the people's business first, to not raise anxiety among the
Nation but go ahead and get our business done, get the politics out of
these Halls, out of the city, and let those questions be settled by the
American people in the actual election process. Once again, we should
create a safety net from the political era for our soldiers in Iraq,
our disaster victims in the United States, our children, and our
seniors.
Mr. President, in that regard, I commend the leaders on our side, the
Speaker of the House, Speaker Gingrich, and the Senate majority leader,
Trent Lott of Mississippi. Yesterday, they came before the American
people, having met with the Republican leadership of the Appropriations
Committee, and released the following statement:
We have already made substantial progress on appropriations
bills for the 1997 fiscal year, with action completed or
virtually completed on nine separate bills. We are committed
to reaching an agreement with the administration on the
remaining bills and completing congressional action by
September 27th.
It is clear that Senate Democrats are using delaying
tactics and political stunts designed more for the upcoming
election than for the completion of the people's business. We
have approached the consideration of these bills in good
faith, but we have been met at every turn by gridlock,
apparently coordinated by the White House. We refuse to be a
part of this game. We believe Congress should complete its
business and adjourn.
Given the Democrats' strategy to tie up the Senate floor,
House and Senate leaders have decided that the Defense
appropriations conference report will be the vehicle for
final consideration of all uncompleted appropriation issues.
The remaining issues will be resolved through bipartisan
negotiations between congressional leaders and the White
House.
In addition to reaching agreement with the administration
on shared priorities like education and antiterrorism, we
are determined to ensure that we quickly provide critical
funding for our troops, for coping with recent disasters,
and for those who are fighting the critical war on drugs.
While we are committed to reaching an agreement with the
administration, we are concerned that we have not yet
received complete information on their requests for
additional spending. We look forward to active negotiations
over the next days leading to final legislation that will
complete the work of the Congress and stay within the limits
of this year's budget.
Again, it is our goal to put a safety net under our troops, our
disaster victims, our children, our seniors, and all the families that
represents across our land.
Mr. President, on the other side, White House Chief of Staff Leon
Panetta has admitted that some Democrats would like to force
Republicans to stay in Washington longer. That sounds like it is
designed strictly for political purposes. Now the other side uses a
slogan, ``Putting Families First,'' but if the White House allows these
Democrats to force extended legislative days here and confusion and
chaos, moving you to a point you would have Government gridlock, they
are engaged in politics at the ultimate.
Mr. President, I am reminded that last year was a very difficult
period here between the Congress and the President. The President likes
to blame the fact that Government came to a close on the Republican
Congress. He tends to forget, Mr. President, that he vetoed
appropriations bill after appropriations bill. At least, Mr. President,
at that time, we were fighting over an absolute core issue in America,
whether or not to balance the budget, something that virtually 80
percent of the American people are wanting and demanding--very
substantive.
Of late, Mr. President, we have heard--and I will read from an
editorial in the Washington Times--that shutdown may have had more to
do with politics than substance, too. Everybody
[[Page S11083]]
is aware of the trials and tribulations of Dick Morris, former
confidant of the President of the United States, but this woman that
apparently shared a relationship with him, Sherry Rowlands, said, ``He
asked if I would like some cognac, and we talked about how it tasted
and then we talked about the Government shutdown, and that he said he
planned this for 5 months ahead of time to show the President as a
leader with no weakness.''
So now we have suggestions that that tumultuous period in the
Congress may have, indeed, been nothing more than a political plan to
increase one's fortunes in the political polls. Well, that may or may
not be the case. We will be, sometime, adjudicating that. But we
certainly know, Mr. President, that at this point the interests of the
American people are that we conclude this fundamental decision, that we
don't create new anxiety in the country, that we come to terms and
settle our differences, that we protect our troops, that we protect our
disaster victims, our children, our seniors, and all the families
associated with that. Let the political stuff get settled out across
the land in the elections. Don't put the people last. Put them first.
Let's get this business done and do it in such a way that the American
people can be comforted, and that all these systems upon which they
depend will continue without interruption.
Mr. President, we have been joined by my good colleague, the
distinguished Senator from Tennessee. I yield up to 5 or 10 minutes, as
he may need, to comment on this issue.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee is recognized.
Legislative Priorities
Mr. THOMPSON. I thank my good friend from Georgia, who expresses some
very valid concerns, and I share those concerns.
Mr. President, as we approach the end of this session of Congress, I
think it is imperative that we get our priorities in order.
The elections are only 6 weeks away. As we all know, this is a highly
charged time. There is much at stake. And right now, there are some
vague rumblings out there that my colleagues on the other side of the
aisle may wish to use this tension to partisan advantage.
Mr. President, I submit that the leadership has gone the extra mile
toward accommodating the concerns of the party in the minority. This
consideration of interests is as it should be.
But I also want to make it clear that if this session stretches out,
it will largely be for political reasons--and caused by the minority in
the Senate.
It appears entirely possible that some of my colleagues are prepared
to stall the final legislation we are now considering in order to play
raw politics.
First off, I believe that the Members of this body should be above
that sort of thing. The American people are cynical enough about the
character of the Congress without its Members handing them more
ammunition. We need to raise the level of discourse here.
Second, we should keep in mind that we are not talking about trivial
matters. We are here to conduct the people's business. To hold up the
work of the Senate for partisan advantage is outrageous. And I will
tell you something else, the folks back home will see through it. The
people who elected us know pious posturing when they see it.
If there is a stall to keep us in session, the people are going to
figure out who's doing it, and pretty fast.
It is one thing to work through honest differences of opinion. It is
quite another to offer trifling, divisive amendments and stalling
tactics at the end of an election-year session to wring out every last
political advantage.
I call on my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to put this
sort of maneuvering aside, so that we can finish the business that the
people elected us to conduct.
To prevent playing politics with the lives of Americans, and to
prevent even the charge that anyone might be playing politics, we must
make certain that the President has legislation on his desk that
finishes out the business we need to close in this term.
There are several basic issues we must address before we adjourn. I
am certain that when we keep in mind how important it is to conduct the
people's business with the dignity it commands, that we will find it in
ourselves to work our way through these pending matters to a swift and
proper outcome.
Right now, we have troops in Bosnia and the Middle East. These men
and women are out there on our behalf, and they deserve our unyielding
support. Let us make sure they have whatever they need, and let's do
that immediately.
At home, even as we vigorously debate the Federal role in domestic
affairs, we need to uphold the commitment we now have to maintain those
services we have promised--and to do so at the levels to which we are
committed. This is of vital importance, most especially to our
veterans, students, senior citizens, and their families.
As Senators, we are obliged to set the highest moral example, and in
that, we must keep our word to the people who elected us.
While we may disagree on the very best way to implement solutions to
the problems we face, I trust that we do not disagree that some action
is vital to keeping our country strong, and to enabling the Nation to
conduct business. We have a basic obligation to the people who elected
us, to maintain the services of the Federal Government at a high level
of efficiency and responsiveness.
We can do this if we put our minds to it. All that is required is
that we decide to finish the people's business, and work toward
agreement on the outstanding issues we face.
This Congress has achieved a great deal. We should be proud. We've
passed many reforms which will not only save money for the taxpayers,
but that also will make Government more efficient and more positive in
the lives of Americans.
We have passed the line-item veto. We have passed the Congressional
Accountability Act. We have ended unfunded mandates. And these are just
a few of the achievements we have to show for our efforts when we agree
to get the job done.
Let us end this session of Congress on a high note by doing what we
were elected to do. Let us work out our differences and pass
legislation along to the President that will keep this country open for
business.
I hope that as we move through these legislative decisions, that we
keep in mind that we cannot jeopardize the important elements of our
Government that enable this Nation to be strong, safe, and free.
We want to preserve the safety of our troops. We want to preserve the
ability of the Nation to conduct its business, and to maintain the
services that our children, our families, and our seniors have come to
depend on. Let us not play politics with these matters.
Traditionally, the Members of this body have come together for the
best interests of the Nation. This Congress has been up to that task,
and I am certain that it still is. My colleagues on both sides of the
aisle are strong enough in their resolve, and they care enough about
the way we conduct our lives in America, that we can all come together
to find agreement on the Nation's business.
Let us concentrate on where we agree, not where we differ.
Let us focus on the issues that bring us together, not those that
take us apart.
Let us find a way to work together, and get this job done.
I trust that we can find a common path as we have in the past, and in
cooperation with the White House, to reach a consensus without delay.
But make no mistake, the majority has done its part. If we are
detained in Washington to keep Congress in session, it will not be over
differences in ideas or for honest disagreements. We have met our
colleagues more than halfway. It's time to wrap things up, and we ought
to be doing that right now.
The people's business should be above partisan posturing, and I
sincerely hope that we can maintain a level of effort and dignity--
commensurate with the history of the Senate--so that we can complete
our work on a high note as we finish out the 104th Congress.
I yield the floor.
Mr. COVERDELL. Mr. President, I appreciate very much the Senator from
Tennessee making himself available for a very cogent statement on this
subject. I know he is trying to get home. I appreciate his taking time
to visit
[[Page S11084]]
with us about this very important matter of getting the people's
business done, getting a safety net here so we can lower the
anxiousness of what gridlock will produce in our country at this time.
As I said a little earlier, we are now speculating about whether the
last gridlock that occurred in the country was an actual political
plan. I am made uncomfortable when the White House Chief of Staff
admits that some Democrats would like to force Republicans to stay in
Washington longer. This article, which appears in the National Journal
Congressional Daily, says:
Some Democrats, Thursday, warned that finishing the funding
bills may not be as easy as Republican members are saying.
Senate minority leader Daschle warned there may be pitfalls
in trying to pass the bill.
Well, what we are hearing is that you are laying a political strategy
because it is thought to be politically useful to have the Congress
appear to be tied up in knots. But I would like to step back from that
and just remind my colleagues on the other side of the aisle that,
currently, because of decisions that the President of the United States
has made, there are 15,000 American soldiers, men and women, in Bosnia.
There are 1,500 of them in Croatia.
There are 29,500 American armed services men and women in the gulf.
There are 200,000 U.S. troops on duty abroad. There are 54,000 involved
in 13 operations around the globe while 146,000 are stationed at
permanent bases abroad. We have literally--quick math--over 50,000 in
harm's way today. And the prospect of this kind of posturing is
completely out of place. It leaves everyone of the families here at
home in support of these troops wondering, and it increases their
worry.
I remember in 1990 my good friend and colleague, former President
Bush, confronted with a Congress that was exacting and demanding tax
increases, and priorities that were not his but he had 1.5 million of
America's men and women in the gulf, and simply would not accept
allowing our Government to come to a gridlock. He would not accept it.
It may have been the decision that ultimately lead to his failed
election. But he was not going to leave those American men and women
overseas at risk. He was not going to do it. So he accepted the
Congress--that was controlled by the other side of the aisle--he
accepted it, and he paid an enormous price for it because people
thought that he had reneged on a pledge. But he first and foremost
stood behind those men and women in uniform in harm's way. We do not
have as many, fortunately, in harm's way today. But we have 50,000. I
think it is just as incumbent upon this Congress and this President to
get that safety net under these men and women, and remove the anxiety
and get the politics out of here. Get it done. Let them feel secure and
move on.
I could read a long litany as we move from troops. We often hear the
Families First agenda about children as if they were the only
legislators that were concerned about children. I would like to remind
them that in the legislation that we are calling upon to get settled we
have 20,000 families in crisis who would not know where to turn for
help for temporary child care, for crisis nurses that serve thousands
of families with children who have disabilities, or serious illnesses.
And the families that are under stress--including families affected by
HIV, homelessness, violence, and family crisis in drugs and alcohol--
over 20,000 families were served in the last 2 years alone. For these
families are we going to put them first, as they are asking, or last,
to fulfill a political objective?
Will you shut down 2,000 school districts who benefit from impact
aid, or put in question the financing of all of those systems? Impact
aid provides financial assistance to school districts for the cost of
educating children when enrollments and the availability of revenues
from local sources have been adversely affected by the presence of
Federal activity. That means military impact by and large across our
country.
Mr. President, the list goes on. You could cite the issues and
problems that will be compounded ad infinitum as you go through this
huge appropriations process that we are saying we should just announce
to the entire country is going to be settled; lower the stress; our
troops don't have to worry; the systems are going to stay intact and we
are going to take politics out of the Halls of Congress, and we are
going to put them in the election where they properly belong.
Mr. President, I have been quoting this National Journal rather
extensively. It is interesting reading. I notice that my good friend,
the Senator from Connecticut, Senator Dodd, who is chairman of the
Democratic National Committee, suggested that our party wants to go
home because they realize--we realize--that this Congress, the 104th
Congress, is a ``disaster.'' I just could not leave that unchallenged.
I remind my good friend from Connecticut that in the last Congress, the
103d Congress, it was dominated by two massive events:
First, the passage by one vote in the House and the Senate, at their
encouragement and by the President's demand, of the largest tax
increase in American history;
Second, by the suggestion that we should grow Government to the
largest level it had ever been, and that we should put in place for
America a Government-run health system, which would have meant for the
first time that over 50 percent of the U.S. economy would be run by the
Government and not by our private sector and citizens.
Those are the two most singular marking events of the last Congress.
Now we come to this Congress that the Senator from Connecticut
characterizes as a ``disaster.'' We have had no tax increase. We have
had not expanded the Government. As a matter of fact, we have saved the
American taxpayers in this Congress $53 billion in the last 2 years,
marking the first time in 25 years that Congress has reversed the trend
to increase discretionary spending; in other words, the first time we
have responded to the American people's request that we get spending
under control.
We adopted a tax--an adoption tax credit. We secured tax relief for
small business. We passed the line-item veto after a 200-year debate.
We made Congress--you and I--live under the same laws as the rest of
America. We passed legislation that would stop unfunded Federal
mandates. We passed, after years of debate, welfare reform. We passed
tax deductions for long-term care expenses. We passed targeted health
care reform, lobbying reform, food safety, safe drinking water and
Everglades restoration.
And the list really is much longer.
More importantly, we secured at least an interim transition in our
President, Mr. President, because in his State of the Union he said
that the era of big Government is over. I would call that a rather
substantive success.
The agenda in this city has been changed. The era of big Government
is over. Welfare reform is in place. Health care reform is in place. We
are not raising taxes. We are saving taxpayers billions upon billions
of dollars.
Mr. President, I think this is exactly the kind of change that
America has been asking for.
I am going to conclude, Mr. President, by simply saying that I think
it is incumbent upon all of us--both sides of the aisle, given the
nature of this political season, and the intensity of it, to come to
terms--to get a safety net under our troops, our families that are
victims of disaster, our children, and our seniors. Take the elections
and our differences out of these halls and into the elections
themselves.
With that, I yield back any time remaining under my designation.
Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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