[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.
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