[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 59 (Thursday, May 8, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H2429]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




[[Page H2429]]



                  AVOIDING ANOTHER GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida [Mr. Weldon] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak out about an 
important initiative that I will be supporting next week and have been 
supporting up until now, which is an effort to avoid another Government 
shutdown. There is a disaster appropriations bill that should be coming 
to the floor next week, and I support an initiative to attach a feature 
to that appropriations bill that would be a safety measure to avoid 
another Government shutdown. The gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. 
Gekas] has been the primary mover behind this, and I rise to speak out 
strongly in support of this initiative.
  I believe that the Government shutdowns that we had last year were 
generally agreed by people on both sides of the aisle as well as the 
President and the Vice President to have been counterproductive and to 
have been something that we should have avoided. And we have an 
excellent opportunity right now to attach an amendment to this 
appropriations bill that simply stated what it would do is, it would in 
the event that we cannot reach agreement with the White House on an 
appropriations bill, that the Government would stay open at a given 
funding level, whether it is 100 percent or 98 percent of the previous 
year's funding level, so that we do not get into this scenario where 
the Government is shut down.
  Mr. Speaker, as many Americans know, on September 30, the previous 
year's appropriation bill expires, and we need a new appropriations 
bill to go into effect on October 1. This continuing resolution or 
safety measure that I am talking about tonight would simply keep the 
Government open. A safety CR would ensure that on October 1 all of the 
appropriations bills that have not been signed into law, such as those 
that fund the Veterans' Administration, NASA, the Social Security 
Administration, to make sure Social Security checks continue to get 
funded, as well as other programs that affect retirees, all Federal 
agencies that would be covered by this safety CR would be able to stay 
open at that level of funding which they received last year or, if it 
is agreed, to be slightly below the previous year's level of funding.
  I think that this measure has several good, important features, one 
of which, it ensures that both Congress and the President negotiate in 
good faith and that they do not use a threat of a Government shutdown 
as a bargaining tool or bargaining chip, so to speak.
  Let me answer a couple of questions first off. Many people are 
asking, is this a new concept? Is passing a continuing resolution a new 
concept? No, it is not. We have passed 53 different continuing 
resolutions in the Congress since 1982. So this is not a new concept at 
all. I believe that this is good preventative medicine.
  Some people are asking, why is it really needed? Well, last year we 
experienced several Government shutdowns, and we all agreed that it was 
just a very, very ineffective thing to do. I believe that this 
continuing resolution attached to the disaster bill makes good sense. I 
believe that the Government shutdowns in many ways was a disaster for 
many of the agencies that were affected by it. And by passing this 
safety CR, attaching it to the supplemental bill that will come up next 
week, we will make sure that the Government stays open and many of the 
people who are dependent on the Federal Government in many ways will 
continue to be able to have, whether it is in the form of a Social 
Security check or whether it is in the form of disaster relief, they 
will be able to continue to use those resources. Therefore, I encourage 
all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle as well as the White 
House to support the safety CR.

                          ____________________