[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 26 (Friday, February 12, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1461-S1462]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           CENSURE RESOLUTION

  Mr. ASHCROFT. Mr. President, the debate we will be having in the 
Senate is on whether to suspend the rules of the Senate to consider a 
resolution censuring the President's conduct.
  A motion will be made to indefinitely postpone the motion to suspend 
the rules. These votes will occur before Senators have the opportunity 
to amend the resolution censuring the President's conduct.
  I take the floor of the Senate to make clear that I am opposed to a 
censure resolution of President Clinton.
  The Impeachment Trial of President William Jefferson Clinton is over. 
The Senate has faithfully discharged its constitutional obligation by 
serving as impartial jurors of the Articles of Impeachment approved by 
a bipartisan majority of the U.S. House of Representatives.
  The Senate has rendered its verdict, and has found the President not 
guilty as charged. The consequence of this action by the Senate is to 
keep the President in office where he is to fully and faithfully 
discharge the constitutional duties of his office.
  The trial is over. It is time for the Senate to focus on the national 
legislative agenda.
  On this last point, I chose my words carefully. I did not say it is 
time for the Senate to turn to the people's business.
  Some have said we should not have had the trial or should have 
adjourned the trial much earlier so that we could turn to the people's 
business.
  I reject that notion. I firmly believe that conducting the trial was 
doing the people's business.
  But the truth is the trial is over. I do not see any place for the 
pending resolution censuring the President. It is not the business of 
the Senate to punish President Clinton.
  As Senator Byrd has concluded censure, unlike impeachment, is 
``extra-constitutional.'' The Constitution empowers the Senate to try a 
President impeached by the House and remove him if 67 Senators agree.
  The Constitution does not empower the Senate to punish a President, 
in the absence of 67 votes to remove. The impeachment trial is over.
  The Senate should move on and leave President Clinton alone.
  The Constitution recognizes that if a President cannot be removed 
through impeachment, he should not be weakened by censure. Although the 
Senate passes sense of the Senate resolutions on many subjects, censure 
is different because the Constitution requires a \2/3\ vote before the 
Senate can discipline the President and requires removal upon 
conviction for impeachable offenses. Censure is an effort to end-run 
these constitutional requirements.
  One final problem is that any censure resolution will have to be 
weak. Even proponents of censure concede that a censure resolution that 
actually punished the President would be an unconstitutional bill of 
attainder. Any censure that is consistent with the Bill of Attainder 
Clause is too weak to be worth doing.
  The highest form of censure the Constitution allows is impeachment by 
the House. The failure to convict the President will not erase that 
action by the House. It is time for the Senate to move on.
  If the effort to suspend the rules passes, and the text of the 
censure resolution is before the Senate, and is amendable, I will seek 
recognition to offer the following substitute, and I quote:
  After the word ``Resolved'' strike everything and insert the 
following:

       ``That the United States Senate at the earliest opportunity 
     will consider and have final votes on legislation favorably 
     reported by its committees that--
       (1) reduces taxes so that Americans no longer pay record 
     high levels of federal income taxes;
       (2) prohibits the financial surplus in the Social Security 
     Trust Funds from financing additional deficit spending in the 
     operating budget of the United States Government;
       (3) increases funds and flexibility for programs that local 
     school districts and their parents, teachers and principals 
     believe will enhance teaching and learning;
       (4) offers comprehensive responses to juvenile justice 
     needs and criminal drug abuse, including increased penalties 
     for adults who use minors in the commission of crimes, 
     increased penalties for drug trafficking, and greater 
     resources for local law enforcement agencies to stop 
     methamphetamine trafficking.
       (5) improves military pay to reduce sharp declines in 
     attracting new and keeping well-qualified solders in the all-
     volunteer Armed Forces.''

  This substitute resolution speaks for itself. This resolution sets 
the Senate on the right course for the Senate to accomplish the 
legislative priorities of this nation.
  These priorities include:
  Congress this year should direct the budget surplus to where it 
belongs, and that is to the people whose hard work produced the 
surplus.
  That means Congress should cut taxes. Americans should no longer pay 
record high levels of federal income taxes.
  The average household paid 25 percent of its income in taxes 
(federal, state, and local) and 30 percent of every additional dollar 
earned by a four-person median income household of $55,000 will go to 
pay taxes.
  The typical American family spends more money on taxes than on food, 
clothing, and shelter combined. Each year Americans work four months 
and 10 days just to pay their taxes. The tax burden is getting worse, 
not better. For the past five years, tax payments have grown faster 
than salaries. Total federal taxes in 1997 were the highest since World 
War II.

  Second, Congress should protect Social Security.
  The best action we can take now to protect the economic security of 
tomorrow's retirees is to protect current surpluses from government 
raiding.
  Using these surpluses to pay down our debt will put our country in 
the best possible financial position to meet our future obligations.
  Third, we should improve education by increasing funds and 
flexibility for programs that local school districts and their parents, 
teachers and principals believe will enhance teaching and learning.
  The Department of Education requires over 48.6 million hours worth of 
paperwork to receive federal dollars. This bureaucratic maze takes up 
to 35% of every federal education dollar.
  Local school districts could find far better uses of the $10-$12 
billion Washington spends. With direct funding, local schools could 
deploy resources to areas they deem most crucial for their students, 
such as hiring new teachers, raising teacher salaries, buying new 
textbooks or new computers
  Fourth, Congress must fight crime and drug abuse.
  While in the last few years the violent crime rate has declined, it 
remains at levels that are far too high. In 1960, 159 violent crimes 
per 100,000 inhabitants were reported; in 1997, 611 were reported. In 
short, violent crime has quadrupled since 1960.
  Drug abuse, especially use of methamphetamines, is also at dangerous 
levels. Public health and law enforcement officials believe that meth 
is more dangerous and addictive than cocaine and heroin. Communities 
are being devastated and the problem is growing exponentially. In 1994, 
DEA agents in Missouri seized 14 clandestine meth labs. Last year, they 
seized 421 labs.
  Meth use is dangerous, threatens our children and causes users to 
commit other crimes. Among 12th graders, the use of ice, a smokeable 
form of meth, has risen 60 percent since 1992. Meth-related emergency 
room incidents are up 63 percent over this same period.
  Fifth, Congress should improve military pay to reduce sharp declines 
in attracting new and keeping well-qualified solders in the all-
volunteer Armed Forces.
  1999 marks the 14th straight year of decline in real dollars spent on 
our national defense. The number of active duty personnel is down 30% 
since 1991. Despite these reductions, the military is being asked to do 
more than it did during the Cold War.


                               Conclusion

  In writing these principles, I strived for bipartisan agreement. I 
believe many, if not all of these, principles have been articulated as 
priorities on both sides of the aisle.
  I did not include my own proposals for accomplishing these 
objectives. The details of these principles can and should be worked 
out by the committees of the Senate, and then by the full Senate.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN addressed the Chair.

[[Page S1462]]

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair recognizes the Senator from 
California.

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