[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 122 (Tuesday, September 15, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H7699-H7700]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         NO GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

  (Mr. OBEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I note that there are stories that continue to 
appear in the press to the effect that we are facing a possible 
government shutdown. The fact is that, in my view, there is virtually 
no chance whatsoever that we will experience a government shutdown. The 
President has already made clear that if the Congress cannot get its 
work done before the fiscal year expires on October 1 that he will 
immediately sign any neutral short-term continuing resolution in order 
to keep the government open while the Congress does catch up to the 
schedule that it is supposed to be on. I would assume that the majority 
leadership of this House would make certain that such a short-term 
continuing resolution is in fact ready, because it is obvious that this 
House is way behind the curve in getting all of our appropriation bills 
done in the necessary time period before the beginning of the next 
fiscal year.
  So I think rather than hearing more of this rhetoric about a possible 
government shutdown, I think that people

[[Page H7700]]

need to be aware of the fact that there certainly is no predisposition 
on this side of the aisle nor is there any predisposition on the part 
of the White House to allow that to happen. And assuming that the House 
and the Senate meet their responsibilities to pass a neutral short-term 
continuing resolution that would take us sometime into October so that 
Congress would have a chance to produce an omnibus appropriation bill, 
because I assume that that is going to happen, there is absolutely no 
reason to expect that there will be a government shutdown in the wings. 
I just do not see that happening.

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