[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.
____________________