[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 138 (Monday, September 30, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11817-S11819]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               OMNIBUS CONSOLIDATED APPROPRIATIONS, 1997

  The Senate continued with the consideration of the bill.
  Mr. HATFIELD. Mr. President, I believe that the pending business is 
the omnibus appropriations bill; is that correct?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is correct.
  Mr. HATFIELD. I thank the Chair.
  Mr. President, the Senate now has, as the Chair has indicated, under 
consideration the fiscal year omnibus appropriations bill which will 
conclude our action on the six fiscal year 1997 appropriations bills 
that have not been enacted into law, and they are: No. 1, Commerce, 
Justice, State, and related agencies; No. 2, the Defense appropriations 
bill; No. 3, the foreign operations appropriations bill; No. 4, the 
Interior and related agencies appropriations bill; No. 5, the Labor-HHS 
appropriations bill; and No. 6, the Treasury-Postal Service 
appropriations bill.
  As Senators are aware, members of the House and Senate Appropriations 
Committee and their staffs worked around the clock at the end of last 
week to reach a bipartisan agreement with the administration on all the 
outstanding issues included in these bills. Our colleagues in the House 
adopted this bill Saturday by an overwhelming rollcall vote of 370 to 
37, and the President has indicated he will sign the bill as soon as it 
reaches his desk.
  I know that many Senators have questions and concerns about this 
legislation. Senator Byrd and I will be here throughout the day to 
address those matters as best we can. I hope and expect that when we 
reach a vote on final passage later today, a large majority of the 
Senate will vote for this legislation.
  Mr. President, this will be the last appropriations measure that I 
will manage here on the Senate floor. For the past 16 years as chairman 
or ranking minority member of the full committee, I have stood here 
with Senator Byrd, Senator Stennis, and Senator Proxmire as we have 
brought to the Senate the 13 annual appropriations acts, supplementals, 
rescissions bills and continuing resolutions. It has been an 
extraordinary experience. The appropriations process has been the 
crucible of debate on enormous range of issues, great and small. We 
have carried on through the revolutionary 1981 reconciliation process, 
the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act, budget summits, and Government 
shutdowns. Despite it all, year in and year out, this Congress has 
acted on appropriations bills and sent them to the President. It is our 
principal constitutional duty to do so.
  Mr. President, I cannot adequately express how honored I am to have 
been a part of this process. I owe an enormous debt to all of my 
colleagues with whom I have served, both here in the Senate and in the 
House. I am privileged to have enjoyed relationships across the aisle 
in both bodies that have immeasurably enriched my life, and I can only 
hope that I have managed to return those gifts in some way.

  All of us on the Committee on Appropriations, both here and in the 
House, are served by an extraordinary staff. These highly capable men 
and women are the best there are. Before I leave Washington for Oregon 
later this month--I started to say later today; that perhaps is only 
wishful thinking at this moment--I hope to be able to thank each one 
personally for their contributions.
  It would be impossible, Mr. President, to make a comprehensive 
recitation of the provisions of this legislation, and I will not try. I 
believe that this bill, which I hold in my hand, represents our 
completed product which is, obviously, a rather enormous package. I 
believe that various summary descriptions have been distributed. The 
text of the legislation is printed in the Record and copies are 
available here on the floor and in cloakrooms and in Senators' offices.
  Mr. President, I wonder if the Senator from Alaska will respond to a 
request that he amend his unanimous-consent agreement to be recognized 
following my brief presentation in order to permit the ranking member, 
Senator Byrd, to make his opening statement as well.
  Mr. STEVENS. I have just conferred with Senator Byrd, and I agree. I 
do amend my request that I be recognized

[[Page S11818]]

after the Senator from West Virginia completes his statement.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection to the amended request? 
Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. HATFIELD. Mr. President, I will yield the floor, but before I do 
so, I, again, want to personalize my remarks, Senator Byrd being on the 
floor, to say that this was a joint effort. And with Senator Byrd's 
vast background and expertise in the procedures of the Senate, the 
history of the Senate, the legislative role of the Senate, I, again, 
express my deep appreciation for his collaboration, his cooperation, 
his spirit of friendship, and the demonstration of that friendship day 
in and day out in achieving our mutual responsibilities to bring this 
bill to the floor, like all previous bills.
  Mr. BYRD addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I thank the distinguished Senator from 
Oregon, [Mr. Hatfield], who is here today managing his last 
appropriations bill. I will have more to say during the day, I am sure, 
on that line.
  The bill now before the Senate contains the results of very intense 
and difficult negotiations over the past week, and particularly over 
the past weekend, between the two Houses, with the administration 
participating with advice and suggestions. These negotiations included 
not only the chairman and ranking members of each of the affected 
Appropriations Subcommittees, but also the representatives of the House 
and Senate Republican and Democratic leadership, as well as the 
President's very able Chief of Staff, Leon Panetta, and the Director of 
the Office of Management and Budget, Frank Raines, and their staffs.

  As Senators are aware, these negotiations were necessary because of 
the inability of Congress and the administration to reach agreement on 
six of the thirteen fiscal year 1997 appropriations bills. Over the 
past months, the President indicated that he would not agree to sign 
these appropriations bills unless funding for a number of priorities 
was increased by some $6.5 billion and unless certain controversial 
legislative riders were dropped.
  And so, we found ourselves in Congress faced with having to deal with 
the President s requests in a very short period of time if we were to 
reach agreement on the six remaining appropriations bills by the 
beginning of fiscal year 1997, which starts at the hour of midnight.
  In addition, the administration proposed a number of urgent 
appropriations, including some $1.1 billion to fight terrorism and 
improve aviation security and safety, as well as over $500 million in 
firefighting assistance for Western States and $400 million to assist 
the victims of Hurricanes Fran and Hortense.
  Mr. President, I congratulate all of those Members and staffs who 
have worked literally around the clock over the past week, and 
certainly over the past weekend, in order to reach this agreement and 
have it prepared for consideration in the House on Saturday evening 
when it was agreed to, and by the opening hours of this day here in the 
Senate. I particularly wish to recognize the efforts of the chairman 
and ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee. Mr. 
Livingston has proved himself to be a very able and articulate 
chairman--and I have enjoyed immensely the opportunity to work with Mr. 
Livingston--he along with his equally able ranking member, Mr. Obey.
  If there were not a David Obey in the Congress, Congress would have 
to create one. He reminds me, in a way, of that irascible Senator 
McClay who was a Member of the first Senate when it met in 1789. Mr. 
Obey is very knowledgeable and extremely able. And so both of these 
men, Mr. Livingston and Mr. Obey deserve great credit for their work on 
this resolution.
  They, together with my dear friend and colleague, the Senator from 
Oregon, who is the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Mr. 
Hatfield, deserve the lion's share of the credit for this agreement.
  I know that Senator Hatfield, as would I, would have preferred to 
have had each of the fiscal year 1997 appropriation bills enacted 
separately rather than having them conglomerated into this massive 
omnibus bill. Senators should not be placed in the position that we 
find ourselves in at this moment. We should not be backed up against 
the wall here on the last day of the fiscal year, facing a Government 
shutdown unless we adopt this massive resolution. No Senator, and I 
dare say no staff person, has had the time to carefully review the 
thousands of programs funded in this resolution, or to read and 
comprehend the many nonappropriations, legislative matters contained in 
this resolution. What we are faced with is having to rely on those 
members and staffs in the House and Senate with jurisdiction over each 
of the provisions in this resolution. To my knowledge they, along with 
the Office of Management and Budget and other executive branch 
personnel, have approved each item and provision in their respective 
areas.
  While I applaud the efforts of all those who have worked so hard on 
this measure, I nevertheless abhor the fact that it, once again, has 
come to this. We must redouble our efforts in future Congresses to get 
our work done, despite the very real differences among ourselves and 
with the administration. The leaders of the Senate have almost 
impossible burdens in meeting the requests of Senators throughout every 
session. I urge my colleagues, on both sides of the aisle, to commit 
themselves to working with both leaders in ways that will enable the 
next Congress not to have to consider such massive, omnibus legislation 
as the one now before the Senate.
  Mr. President, as the distinguished chairman of the committee, 
Senator Hatfield, has stated, this resolution contains the necessary 
appropriations for fiscal year 1997 for each of the six remaining 
appropriation bills which have not yet been enacted into law. Namely, 
Title I of the resolution provides the fiscal year 1997 appropriations 
for the following appropriation bills: Commerce/Justice/State/ and the 
Judiciary; Department of Defense; Foreign Operations; Interior; Labor-
HHS; and Treasury Postal.
  Titles II, III, and IV of H.R. 4278 contain legislation that results 
in offsets totaling some $3.3 billion. Those provisions include so-
called BIF-SAIF; SPECTRUM sales; and certain PAYGO savings.
  Title V contains other appropriations for various departments and 
agencies totaling some $850 million, as well as a number of general 
provisions.
  Finally, I should note that division C of the resolution contains the 
agreement on immigration reform.
  Chairman Hatfield has highlighted the important priorities contained 
in this resolution and, therefore, I will not repeat them.
  I hope that the Senate will proceed expeditiously and that we may be 
able to complete action on this measure in time to send it to the 
President for him to sign before the hour of midnight. I shall have 
more to say, of course, during the day.
  I thank the distinguished Senator from Alaska [Mr. Stevens] for his 
characteristic courtesy in yielding to me, and I yield the floor.
  Mr. STEVENS addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska.
  Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I have the greatest respect for the 
chairman and ranking member of our full committee, the Appropriations 
Committee. I certainly do apologize to them for seeking the floor ahead 
of them, because I knew they were coming. But I wanted to make certain 
that I did retain the right to alert the Senate to a very difficult 
problem as we proceed to consider this bill.
  First, let me say I know that this is the last bill to be handled by 
the Senator from Oregon. He and I went on the Appropriations Committee 
on the same day. I have sat beside him for so many years now working on 
matters affecting appropriations, and we have both served with the 
distinguished Senator from West Virginia in a way that most people 
would never understand.
  There is a deep friendship among those of us who worked through long 
nights trying to figure out how to solve the problems of keeping this 
Government going and at the same time pursue the objectives of policy 
enunciated by our leaders. It is not an easy thing.
  Both the Senator from Oregon and the Senator from West Virginia have 
spent many more hours in conference on this bill than any other member 
of the Appropriations Committee, and

[[Page S11819]]

they certainly deserve our great respect and thanks for all the work 
they have done to get us to this point.
  As the Senator from West Virginia just said, this bill absolutely 
must be signed tonight. It is our intention to see to it that that 
takes place. I do give both the Senator from Oregon and the Senator 
from West Virginia great credit for what they have done and the manner 
in which they have handled this bill.
  As a postscript, I also say I certainly do agree with the Senator 
from West Virginia--and I think the Senator from Oregon does too; I 
know he does--this is not the way to handle appropriations bills, and 
we must find a way to deal with our procedure to assure that bills from 
appropriations committees, that each bill is considered on its own 
merits and it goes to the President in a way that expresses the will of 
the Congress, and the President can express the will of the executive 
branch. Under our traditional system of checks and balances, that must 
be preserved in order to assure the freedom of this country. So I 
intend to work with the Senators to achieve that goal. I do, again, 
apologize to them for seeking the floor ahead of them because I know 
they are entitled to present their positions in the very beginning.

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