[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 137 (Saturday, September 28, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11624-S11625]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       THE CONTINUING RESOLUTION

  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I rise today with a sense of both joy 
and disappointment as I am being briefed by my staff about what is the 
purported agreement for the continuing resolution that will fund our 
country for the next year. There are, indeed, some very good parts of 
that bill. But I have to say that the distinguished Senator from New 
Hampshire, Senator Gregg, made a compelling speech this morning about 
many of the fine points of this bill that are atrocious, and talking 
about dealing with the administration, the administration which changed 
the negotiating points constantly throughout this process. I think it 
is a sad way that we are going to end this session, that the 
administration has come in at virtually the last hour and held the 
threat of shutting down Government and blaming the Republican Congress 
for doing it, in an effort to win things that have been lost on the 
floor already.
  So, it is with mixed feelings that I rise to talk about what is in 
this bill, both good and bad. I am very pleased that we are going to 
satisfy the basic responsibilities that we must. We are going to 
support our troops in the Mideast and in Bosnia. But we are going to do 
it with $1 billion less than we had hoped we could have in our defense 
budget because this is not a safe world. As we were sending troops into 
the Middle East--because in many ways it looks as if we did not have a 
clear policy on the Kurds, but nevertheless we sent troops in to 
reinforce--as we were doing it, the administration was asking us to cut 
the defense budget. We are going to be able to do the basic things that 
we need to do, but we are not making the plans for the future that we 
must make for our country to be secure from incoming ballistic 
missiles, in theaters, wherever our forces may be, to be secure from 
incoming ballistic missiles. We are not doing what we ought to be doing 
to plan for the future strength of our military so we will remain ready 
for any contingencies that might occur.

  We are not planning as we should. I hope that next year, when the 
elections are over, we will be able to commit the amount of money and 
resources we need, first, to make sure that America stays secure and 
strong and, second, that we will protect our troops from disasters like 
the bombing that we saw just a few months ago in Saudi Arabia.
  We are going to give pay raises to our young men and women in the 
military, who so richly deserve them, 3 percent pay raises. That is a 
good part of this bill. But we are not planning enough for their future 
with ballistic missile defenses and other major pieces of equipment and 
technologies that would look to the future so an incoming ballistic 
missile can be stopped before it goes into its downward track.
  Mr. President, we are going to increase with this bill funding for 
breast cancer research, a long time coming. Women's diseases in this 
country have been made short shrift by Congresses of the past, but not 
in this Congress. This Congress has increased funding for breast cancer 
research and osteoporosis research, diseases that particularly afflict 
women in our country, and I am proud that we are doing that.
  We are going to more fairly distribute the money for Amtrak in our 
country. I fought hard for that, and I appreciate the fact that all of 
us came together on a bipartisan basis to strengthen Amtrak for our 
country and to give all of the States that were told 2 months ago they 
would lose their service of Amtrak, including my State of Texas, but 
many States across the western part of our country.
  We were told that we would have 90 days and these routes would be 
gone. Mr. President, 90 days is not enough for a State to be able to 
come in and add funding, resources to keep lines like this open. You 
have to have better planning. Most States have biennial legislatures. 
My State certainly does, and I wanted a 6-month extension to give all 
of us a chance to see if the States can come up with a better plan to 
help keep Amtrak service in our States, because I believe in a balanced 
transportation system, and I believe Amtrak is a major part of that.
  Because I like the idea that we can have a bus feeder system into 
Amtrak stations so that people who do not have the mobility that many 
in our urban areas have will have access from the small communities of 
our country into the Amtrak stations, into our cities and our mass 
transit systems, and into our airports. That is what Amtrak can be if 
we can get a good system for Amtrak where the States and the Federal 
Government come together. So this bill does fund a 6-month extension 
for those important Amtrak lines that were told that they would close.
  We are going to increase funding for medical research, including 
AIDS. AIDS is an epidemic in this country, and it is time that we 
realize it is hitting children, babies, as well as people from all 
walks of life. It is a tragedy, and we should be increasing our 
commitment to finding out what causes this deadly virus so that we can 
do something to save the lives of innocent people, and we are doing 
that.
  We are putting major resources into antiterrorism measures and also 
drug interdiction.
  Mr. President, we have been hearing just recently in the last 6 
months about incredible statistics showing that drug abuse is now going 
back up among our teenagers and, even worse, Mr. President, under 
teenagers--under teenagers. Our children, starting at the age of 9, are 
abusing drugs in this country. This is a crime, it is a disease, and we 
must get rid of it. So our bill will put the resources into that.
  But I am very concerned about the illegal immigration bill and what 
the administration did in negotiating that bill. That bill passed this 
body months ago. We had a strong bipartisan effort for a bill that does 
give us the tools to stop illegal immigration into our country that 
costs our taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. It was told to us 
that the bipartisan bill would be signed. It was told to us by the 
President that he would sign the bill. Yet, after that representation 
was made, he came in with the threat that he would shut down Government 
and blame the Republicans for it and reopen the illegal immigration 
bill that had bipartisan support in this Congress.

  It appears that that bill has been changed and some of the key 
provisions have been taken out, such that a person on welfare would be 
able to bring other immigrants into this country and supposedly vouch 
that they would not become dependent on taxpayer resources. A person 
who is dependent on taxpayer resources saying that they will support 
another person coming into our country and that they will not be 
supported by taxpayer resources, how naive can we be?
  Mr. President, I am hoping that this Senate will be able to vote on a 
bill, that we have already passed in both Houses of Congress, on Monday 
that will put those key provisions back in to the illegal immigration 
bill so that we will have teeth in it and we will protect the taxpayers 
from people who would come to this country with their hand out rather 
than coming to this country in the spirit and tradition of the legal 
immigrants looking for the opportunity to do better for themselves and 
for this country.
  I am very concerned that we would renegotiate the bill on illegal 
immigration that gives us the chance, finally, to say it means 
something to be a legal immigrant in this country, because if you come 
in illegally, there will be a price to pay and that price is that you 
will not be able to come into our country and seek citizenship for 10 
years if you have broken the laws of our country by entering illegally.
  I hope that we can pass the illegal immigration bill in its entirety 
on Monday and that we will not succumb

[[Page S11625]]

to the pressures from the White House to renegotiate a bill that the 
President said he would sign after it had already been agreed to by 
both Houses of this Congress on a bipartisan basis.
  I commend our majority leader, Senator Lott, who came in to his job 
quite suddenly just a few months ago without very much notice and, yet, 
has fought so hard to make Congress live up to its responsibility to 
the people of our country and pass the laws that will improve the lives 
of the people of our country and improve accountability to the people 
of our country. He has said we must fund our Government in a 
responsible way, and he set out to make that happen.
  So with very little experience, our majority leader has done an 
incredible job of making sure that we do not let the people of our 
country down, but it has been made a very difficult chore for him by a 
constantly moving negotiation.
  We talked about the great sports metaphor using the goal posts. As 
the distinguished Senator from Wyoming said yesterday, we not only 
moved the goal posts, we moved the whole game. We moved it out of the 
stadium by acceding to a President's wishes who would not say, ``A deal 
is a deal,'' and kept saying, ``A deal is a deal, but what more can I 
get?''
  So, Mr. President, I hope that, if this continuing resolution passes, 
we can reform the procedures here and that we can have a President 
whose word is good so that we will be able to become accountable to the 
taxpayers of our country, let the taxpayers know that they are getting 
their money's worth and that the test will be able to stand the light 
of day. Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.
  Mr. SIMON addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair recognizes the Senator from 
Illinois.
  Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, before I get into what I came on the floor 
to remark about, if I could just comment on the last part of what the 
distinguished Senator from Texas had to say.
  While I would differ with her characterization of President Clinton's 
posture, her praise for Senator Lott as majority leader is right on 
target. I had the privilege of serving with Trent Lott in the House and 
now here in the Senate. When a new leader comes in, there is a big 
question mark. Frankly, I did not know what kind of a majority leader 
he would be. My impression is he is serving his party and the Senate 
and the Nation very well. I, as one who was uncertain, now have the 
impression that Senator Lott and his leadership is going to be very 
good for the Nation.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Will the Senator yield?
  Mr. SIMON. I will be pleased to yield to my colleague.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I just want to say that the statement 
that was just made by the Senator from Illinois is so typical of this 
man, who is probably spending his last hours with us in the U.S. 
Senate. His voice of reason, his absolute integrity, and his 
willingness to say what he thinks about a Member of the other party, 
regardless of what it is, is always said in a civil way, and in this 
case I think very much on target. I just want to say that his 
distinguished voice will be much missed in the next convening of our 
U.S. Senate.
  Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.
  Mr. SIMON. I thank my colleague from Texas. Let me add, it is 
typically gracious of her to have made those remarks.

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