[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 82 (Thursday, June 12, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H3792]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWNS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from North Carolina [Mr. Coble] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. COBLE. Mr. Speaker, when I came over today I did not plan to 
speak. But as I heard the discussion on the supplemental some moments 
ago, referrals were made to the government shutdown in 1995. The 
government shut down very briefly, I think it was in 1991, regarding 
virtually identical causes as was the case in 1995; that is, the 
unwillingness and/or the inability of the President on the one hand and 
the Congress on the other to agree on budgetary matters. It was 
universally concluded in 1991 that President Bush shut her down. Oh, 
yes, he shut the government down. But guess what? When the government 
shut down in 1995, was it universally concluded that President Clinton 
shut her down? No. The Congress shut down the government in 1995. 
President Clinton's fingerprints were not to be found thereon, at least 
it was not reported.
  TV talk show hosts, Mr. Speaker, weekend talk show hosts in 
particular, ask time and again of their weekend guests, well, are the 
Republicans going to shut down the government again during the 105th 
Congress? I have heard it asked dozens of times. A more evenhanded 
question, Mr. Speaker, would be, do the President and the Congress 
intend to shut down the government again? Never heard that asked once.
  I will admit we in the Congress sometimes become prisoners or victims 
of our own rhetoric. But keep in mind both the executive and the 
legislative branch must assume some blame when it comes to these 
matters. President Clinton, President Bush, President whoever, unlike 
Members of Congress, is elected by the American people, by all of the 
American people. He is the chief operating officer of the Federal 
Government, and as such, he is compelled to lead.
  The media, and I generally am not critical of the media because I 
have been the beneficiary of pretty evenhanded treatment by them, but 
the media has a way of portraying news this way or that way, and the 
way it is portrayed, that is the accounts of news, the way it is 
portrayed obviously has a direct result in the way that viewers or 
readers perceive it. You have heard it said, Mr. Speaker, and so have 
I, that perception is 90 percent of it.
  So President Bush having closed down the government in 1991, that is 
the perception because in many instances that is the way the news was 
portrayed. But, no, not President Clinton in 1995. I repeat, I was not 
even going to get into this, but much was said about it today as we 
were getting into the discussion of the supplemental and I felt obliged 
to at least address it in this small way.
  I hope the media will assume a more objective and therefore less 
subjective role in its subsequent reporting of these matters. Keep in 
mind, Mr. Speaker, Pennsylvania Avenue runs two ways. We have the 
Congress at one end, President Clinton at the other end. President 
Clinton for this time, whoever it may be subsequently. But this is a 
two-way street. When government shutdowns occur, they involve both the 
President and the Congress. And the purpose of this message today from 
me, the gospel according to Coble, is to remind people it is a two-way 
street.
  Mr. WICKER. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. COBLE. I yield to the gentleman from Mississippi.
  Mr. WICKER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from North Carolina 
for bringing up this point. I think it is very important. We have had 
an appropriation bill before us, and we had legislative language on it.
  But I hope my friends on the other side of the aisle have not been 
suggesting today that we are the first people in the history of the 
Congress to put riders on appropriation bills. For 40 years during 
Republican and Democrat administrations, the Democrats, when they were 
in the majority, used this as a legitimate exercise of the power of the 
purse. I think my friend from North Carolina will agree that we were 
fighting about some very, very important things on this spending bill.
  Mr. COBLE. Reclaiming my time, Mr. Speaker, I say to the gentleman 
from Mississippi, that is precisely my point. That is the way it needs 
to be portrayed.

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