[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 75 (Wednesday, June 4, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H3279]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  PRESIDENT SHOULD SUPPORT GEKAS-WYNN GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN PREVENTION 
                               PROVISION

  (Mr. KINGSTON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, a couple of weeks ago, when Congress 
passed the historic balanced budget agreement by a vote of 333, it set 
forth a very good tone for Congress and the White House and the Senate 
to work together to move us toward a balanced budget by the year 2002. 
And although this resolution is very important, it is only the first 
step. There will be a lot of skirmishes down the road over taxes, 
education, Medicare, health care in general, and so forth like that.
  One of the things that the Republicans have done, however, to make 
sure this does not lead us to a gridlock and a Government shutdown is 
that we have passed the Gekas-Wynn Government shutdown prevention 
provision. What that says is that if Congress and the President have 
not agreed on a balanced budget or the appropriations bills by 
September 30, then the Government would continue at 100 percent of the 
1997 funding level and that would prevent a shutdown.
  Now, for some reason the President is against this. I hope that he 
will change his mind and support this so that we will not have the 
Government shutdown as we did last year.

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