[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 136 (Friday, September 27, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H11583]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      GAO REPORT AFFIRMING LEGALITY OF RUBIN ACTION ON DEBT LIMIT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida [Mr. Gibbons] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the American people, I would 
like to express our gratitude and respect to Treasury Secretary Robert 
Rubin for his courageous and responsible actions during the last year 
in the face of the regrettable debt limit crisis. Specifically, I would 
like to call to the attention of my colleagues a report that the 
General Accounting Office [GAO] issued earlier this month reporting on 
the Treasury's handling of the debt limit crisis. As you may recall, 
for several months beginning last October the Republican Congressional 
leadership refused to increase the statutory debt limit, an 
intransigence that brought the Nation to the brink of default on its 
sovereign debt for the first time in its history. As a result of 
Congress' actions, Treasury Secretary Rubin was required to take a 
variety of extraordinary measures to safeguard the Nation's credit and 
to prevent a situation that was deemed ``unthinkable.'' The recent GAO 
report concluded that all of Secretary Rubin's actions were legal, 
calling them ``proper and consistent with legal authorities the 
Congress has provided to the Secretary of the Treasury.''
  We all owe a debt of gratitude to Secretary Rubin. Clearly, his 
extensive experience in financial markets enabled him to understand 
fully the disastrous consequences of default. The GAO report makes 
abundantly clear that Secretary Rubin met this challenge in a manner 
that was both lawful and effective.
  It was clear at the time, and it is even clearer in hindsight, that 
the debt limit impasse was simply a tactic to force President Clinton 
to sign a budget deal with which his Administration could not live. It 
was a dangerous game to play, because the Nation's credit affects the 
financial well-being of all Americans and the financial stability of 
all the world. It was not only a risky game. It was ultimately a losing 
game. It should come as no surprise then that neither the Dole campaign 
nor the Republican leadership of this Congress has offered any comment 
on this report.
  Secretary Rubin's actions were as effective as they were courageous. 
The American people should be proud of this very fine public servant.

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