[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 82 (Thursday, June 12, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H3793-H3794]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   AVOID ANOTHER GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida [Mr. Scarborough] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SCARBOROUGH. Mr. Speaker, as I was saying just a minute ago to 
the gentleman from Mississippi, it is frustrating to hear time and time 
again about the need for these clean CRs.
  Now, if we wanted to address just how clean this CR was, and I may 
ask the gentleman from Mississippi in a minute or two to talk about 
some of the things that were in the bill, but the President said please 
do not jeopardize flood relief for these poor victims, just send me a 
clean CR, or a clean appropriations bill.
  If we wanted to talk about a clean bill, that would add up to about 
$750 million. If we were concerned about flood relief for the victims 
of the horrible floods up in the Midwest, we would have sent $750 
million. Unfortunately, by the time this bill got passed through the 
House and through the Senate and through the White House

[[Page H3794]]

requests, this $750 million quickly became $8.4 billion.
  The same Democrats that have stood on this floor earlier today 
arguing about how horrible it was that we would not send a clean 
emergency appropriations bill, were the same Democrats that threatened 
to derail this measure if we did not put in things such as a parking 
garage in Ohio that had absolutely nothing to do with what the flood 
victims were suffering from; or who threatened to strike this down if 
we did not put in provisions pertaining to apple orchard subsidies.
  If they can somehow come to the floor and explain to me how subsidies 
for apple orchardists had anything to do with this flood, I would 
certainly welcome their arguments. I would like to hear those 
arguments.
  I guess what I am saying is, I just, as a Member of this House, get a 
little bit tired of this self-righteous indignation from our friends on 
the other side who talk about how they want this clean bill and yet 
they fill it up, they load it up with what a lot of Americans would 
call pork. Their hands certainly are not clean.
  I agree also with the gentleman regarding the continuing resolution. 
For 3 years we have heard the President and our friends on the left 
whine about how horrible it is that the Republicans were awful enough 
to shut down the Federal Government and this must never happen again.
  I remember all the Democrats flooding to the floor afterwards, where 
they checked with their pollsters and the pollsters told them this is a 
really good issue, and they all came down when we were having our 
morning hour and they are all lining up and saying, ``Mr. Speaker, this 
must never happen again. This must never happen again. It is the most 
awful thing that has ever occurred. Mr. Speaker, how could they be so 
cold-hearted? Let us ensure in America today that it will never happen 
again.''
  Well, guess what, Mr. Speaker? Guess what, America? They had that 
opportunity this past week to make sure that the Federal Government 
would never be shut down again. Not only that, we bent over backwards. 
We said, okay, not only are we going to pass an insurance policy to 
make sure that the Federal Government does not get shut down again, we 
are going to go the extra mile and we are going to allow the government 
to be funded fully at last year's level.
  Now, that is so unbelievably reasonable that I find it astounding 
that Democrats can still slouch towards the microphone on this floor in 
self-righteous indignation telling us that they really are concerned 
about a government shutdown or telling us that we have done this great 
disservice to the flood victims in the Midwest because we wanted to 
ensure that the Federal Government was never shut down again.
  I mean let us talk about reality for a second. The reality is the 
flood victims were fully funded. They were fully funded. This was an 
emergency appropriation to help them a month or so down the road. And 
yet, and yet, they come in and try to tell us that it is like we are 
kicking people out of tents or out of trailers because we are trying to 
ensure that the Federal Government does not get shut down again with 
this insurance policy.
  The real threat to flood victims, not only in the Midwest but the 
threat to the flood victims in my region in Florida, the threat to 
earthquake victims in California, the threat to Americans from coast to 
coast is if this government ever does shut down again and we cannot 
fund their needs. That is all we were trying to do.

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