[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 46 (Thursday, April 17, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H1687-H1688]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN SHOULD NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Gekas] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GEKAS. Mr. Speaker, the budget negotiations, by some accounts, 
are not getting very close to agreement. This brings up again, and I 
say again advisedly, the prospect of a shutdown of Government. It is 
not too early to start thinking about that, even though we have not 
finished the month of April. But because of the nature of the budget 
process, it is something that can be in our futures, unfortunately.
  Everybody knows by now that since 1989, for four or five Congresses 
since then, or whatever that number is, I have been proposing 
legislation that would prevent a Government shutdown, and it works on a 
simple formula: At the end of the budget period of September 30, for 
instance, if no new budget has been negotiated between the President 
and the Congress, then automatically, by way of instant replay, as I am 
fond to say, the next day, the dawn of the new fiscal year, would bring 
about last year's numbers for a period of time under a continuing 
resolution until a budget can be met. This means, upon passage of this 
type of legislation, we will never face a shutdown again. That was a 
horrible aspect of the last Congress when we had to explain to the 
American people how it was that the Government shut down.
  I myself believe that the President failed in his responsibilities 
there, because if he had signed the appropriations in the first place, 
the shutdown would not have occurred. Others blame the Republican 
Congress for proposing measures that the President found necessary to 
veto. So, who is to blame? That blame game can be played all year long, 
and we would never get the business of the Congress accomplished. My 
legislation would ensure that no shutdown would occur.
  Now, where are we? Here in 1997, we are approaching the period of 
time when we will be dealing with the supplemental appropriations. We 
have good information to the effect that on the Senate side, Senators 
McCain and Lott, Hutchinson, Stevens, and others

[[Page H1688]]

are pursuing the proposals that I have made over these years. In fact, 
I have conferred with them several times and have had press conferences 
with them. They are ready to insert into the supplemental 
appropriations a measure that is similar to mine.
  This is good news, because it means eventually that the House will 
have to act on it. Meanwhile, our own appropriations process for the 
supplementals is on its way to fruition. We are going to see what we 
can do to add it to this side's complement of the budget process for 
supplemental appropriations.
  In the meantime, we have received endorsement from several important 
citizen organizations. The most recent one was from the Concord 
Coalition which, in response to our proposal, sent us a letter saying, 
quote:

       Enactment now of this fall-back funding would remove the 
     possibility that Government agencies would shut down later 
     this year due to the inability of the Congress and the 
     President to agree on spending. Your amendment tilts the 
     process in favor of making these tough decisions and away 
     from counterproductive and deficit-increasing political 
     games.

  That is an important endorsement that we received from the Concord 
Coalition.
  The U.S. Chamber of Commerce commented in a letter to us:

       Your legislation's provision of temporary funding until 
     Congress and the President come to an agreement means that 
     the threat of closing portions of the Government could no 
     longer be used by either side in an attempt to pass a budget. 
     Negotiations over spending bills would then remain more 
     focused on the legislation's merits, yielding a more rational 
     and sound process.

  So says the President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in a letter 
directly sent to us to endorse our legislation.
  We have many, many different kinds of endorsements from citizens' 
groups, contractors' groups, Federal employees' groups, and others. The 
time has come to allow this process to become a part of our law. It is 
a shame to permit our Government to shut down at any time, not for 5 
minutes.
  I cite the most blatant example of why it should never happen. On the 
Columbus Day weekend of 1990, while we had amassed 500,000 of our young 
people in Saudi Arabia waiting for Desert Storm, our Government shut 
down. We should never let anything like that happen again.

                          ____________________