[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 157 (Tuesday, November 9, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H11828-H11829]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          FURTHER CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS, FISCAL YEAR 2000

  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that it be 
in order immediately to consider in the House the joint resolution 
(H.J. Res. 78) making further continuing appropriations for the fiscal 
year 2000, and for other purposes; that the joint resolution be 
considered as read for amendment; that the joint resolution be 
debatable for 1 hour, equally divided and controlled by the chairman 
and ranking minority member of the Committee on Appropriations; and 
that the previous question be considered as ordered on the joint 
resolution to final passage without intervening motion except one 
motion to recommit.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Florida?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to the previous order of 
the House, I call up the joint resolution (H. J. Res 78) making further 
continuing appropriations for the fiscal year 2000, and for other 
purposes, for its immediate consideration in the House.
  The Clerk read the title of the joint resolution.
  The text of House Joint Resolution 78 is as follows:

                              H.J. Res. 78

       Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
     United States of America in Congress assembled, That Public 
     Law 106-62 is further amended by striking ``November 10, 
     1999'' in section 1069c) and inserting in lieu thereof 
     ``November 17, 1999'', and by striking ``$288,903,248'' in 
     section 119 and inserting in lieu thereof ``$346,483,754.'' 
     Public Law 106-46 is amended by striking ``November 10, 
     1999'' and inserting in lieu thereof ``November 17, 1999''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young) and the gentleman from Wisconsin 
(Mr. Obey) each will be recognized for 30 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young).


                             General Leave

  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all 
Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their 
remarks on H.J. Res. 78, and that I may include tabular and extraneous 
material.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Florida?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, the current continuing resolution expires tomorrow 
night. While we had planned to have all appropriations action completed 
by tomorrow, that will not be possible because of some ongoing 
negotiations with the administration. We will need an extension into 
next week because of the Veterans Day holiday.
  H. J. Res. 78 would continue operations for the agencies in the five 
remaining bills until November 17, and I would urge our Members to 
support it.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 5 minutes.
  Mr. Speaker, I do not think there is any purpose in dragging this out 
tonight. This is a simple extension until next Wednesday.
  I think Members need to have some understanding of what remaining 
differences are out there, because I think there is a vast 
misperception about exactly where the conferees are on these issues. As 
I see it, on the interior appropriations bill, we have made some 
progress with respect to language items. There are still a number of 
important language items that have not been resolved, a number of the 
riders, and there is also at least one major dollar issue which still 
is to be resolved, and it is the biggest dollar problem in the bill.

                              {time}  2015

  With respect to State, Justice, Commerce, virtually all the dollar 
disagreements have been resolved. But there are still major differences 
with respect to language and riders. And again, that represents the 
items that remain represent major impediments to final agreement.
  With respect to the Labor, Health, Education bill, we were in 
conference once today this morning. We went into conference the second 
time, or were invited to come into conference this afternoon. We went 
to the Senate in order to participate in that conference. While we were 
sitting in the conference room waiting for the conference to start, the 
majority conferees on the Senate side in charge of the conference were 
busy holding a press conference

[[Page H11829]]

denouncing the actions of those in the conference who represented the 
White House; and so, we wound up, instead of having a conference, 
having a press conference while we awaited the possibility of having a 
conference.
  So we made no further progress on that bill since about noon.
  That means I think that the individual Members of this place need to 
know what is going to happen with their schedules.
  I would urge the majority party leadership to recognize what the 
scheduling reality is and to recognize that we either have to have 
maximum flexibility in reaching an agreement or else we need to have 
maximum recognition of reality on a timetable so that Members who are 
not participating in the conference do not have to hang around here 
waiting for things to happen that are not likely to happen.
  I would hope that we could continue discussions and reach agreement 
on the items so that we do not have another round of recriminations 
before we finally get out of here.
  It seems to me that if we could have more time spent discussing the 
differences and less time spent in shenanigans, we would all be a whole 
lot better off.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance my time.
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume just briefly to close and suggest that we are hoping that, as 
the negotiators continue their work during tomorrow and Thursday and 
Friday and Saturday and Sunday, that by Monday we will have workable 
packages that are agreed upon.
  But we are at the final stage of the negotiations. Everyone who has 
ever negotiated knows that the most difficult decisions to agree on are 
put off to the end. Well, now we are at the end and we are dealing with 
the most difficult decisions.
  As the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) has pointed out, we have 
had very spirited negotiations most of the day today. We were here late 
last night. We were here over the weekend and we are moving as rapidly 
as we can. But we have some very strong differences of opinions between 
the Congress and even between the House and the Senate, as well as the 
administration.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I would just like to make one additional observation. I 
have seen in those conferences at least two people who are crucial to 
the conference falling asleep in the middle of the conferences. That is 
because they are bone tired.
  I would suggest that the best thing we could do is stop the rhetoric 
tonight, pass this baby, go on home and get a good night's sleep, and 
show up tomorrow morning ready to do some business with each other for 
real.
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, that is what I 
was going to say when the gentleman asked me to yield.
  Mr. Speaker, I would hope that we would pass this continuing 
resolution expeditiously and let us get back to the bargaining table 
with the administration.
  Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. I yield to the gentleman from California.
  Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my colleague 
yielding.
  The spirit that is being presented here is very much to be followed 
by a special order recognizing the service of our colleague, the 
gentleman from California (George Brown), so that Members would know 
that.
  In the meantime, I very much appreciate the communication between 
both sides this evening.
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his 
comments.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I urge an 
expeditious aye vote on the resolution.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Walden of Oregon). Pursuant to the order 
of the House, the previous question is ordered.
  The question is on the engrossment and third reading of the joint 
resolution.
  The joint resolution was ordered to be engrossed and read a third 
time, and was read a third time, and passed, and a motion to reconsider 
was laid on the table.

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