[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 128 (Wednesday, September 23, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H8508-H8509]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 SEPTEMBER 23 AND NO BUDGET RESOLUTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Minge) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MINGE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call attention to the fact 
that it is now September 23 and we do not yet have a budget resolution 
that has been passed by Congress. It is 7 days before the beginning of 
the next fiscal year and we do not have a budget resolution. We have 
had in place requirements that we established to follow a budgeting 
process that is governed by a budget resolution. We have had this in 
place for 24 years. This is the first time, it appears, that Congress 
will fail to comply with its own requirements.
  I ask my colleagues, what has happened, where is the leadership in 
this institution, if we are not complying with the basic requirement of 
having a budget resolution?
  I would also point out this is not a divided Congress in terms of 
leadership. Both the House and the Senate have leadership from the same 
side of the aisle. It is critical that if we are going to have fiscal 
integrity, if we are going to seriously commit ourselves to balancing 
the budget, to reducing the deficit, to not using Social Security money 
for other programs, that we commit ourselves to observing the principle 
of having a budget resolution.
  It is very difficult to explain why we place budget discipline on the 
books and then ignore it in practice. It is very difficult to explain 
why we say to local communities and to States that they must have a 
budget plan for the

[[Page H8509]]

use of Federal money and we do not have a budget plan. It is very 
difficult to say to the United Nations why it must have fiscal 
discipline when we fail to observe the elemental part of fiscal 
discipline and budget discipline in this body.
  I urge my colleagues to join with me in calling on the leadership of 
this institution to forthwith appoint conferees so that they may meet 
with the Senate, reconcile whatever differences exist between the two 
initial resolutions, one passed on one side of the building, the other 
on the other, and bring to this body a budget resolution for final 
action.

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