[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 127 (Thursday, October 12, 2000)]
[House]
[Pages H9821-H9826]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
FURTHER CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS, FISCAL YEAR 2001
Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 627,
I call up the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 111) making further
continuing appropriations for the fiscal year 2001, and for other
purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.
The Clerk read the title of the joint resolution.
The text of House Joint Resolution 111 is as follows:
H.J. Res. 111
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled, That Public
Law 106-275, is further amended by striking ``October 13,
2000'' in section 106(c) and inserting in lieu thereof
``October 20, 2000''.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 627, the
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young) and the gentleman from Wisconsin
(Mr. Obey) each will control 30 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young).
Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
(Mr. YOUNG of Florida asked and was given permission to revise and
extend his remarks.)
Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, the continuing resolution before
us is
[[Page H9822]]
the third one for this fiscal year. It would continue the original CR
until October 20.
I might say and remind my colleagues that the House has passed all of
the appropriations bills earlier this year, but because of conference
meetings that needed to be taken care of and meetings with the White
House, we have not concluded that business.
However, I am also happy to report that there is considerable
movement, I believe, in the other body that we will see today, and
hopefully we will be able to conclude this appropriations business next
week in the House and in the other body.
So I merely ask the support of the Members to conclude this CR today
so we can pass it on to the Senate and then get about our business.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 13\1/2\ minutes.
Mr. Speaker, what I say is meant in no way to criticize the gentleman
from Florida, because he has been one of the few realistic voices on
the other side of the aisle trying to point out what the realities are.
But the fact is, this is, what, the third continuing resolution that
we have had. The budget is supposed to be done on October 1. We are now
getting much closer to November 1 than we are to October 1. What have
we seen? We have seen bill after bill emerge from conference which have
wound up spending much more money than is in the President's budget.
Those bills have virtually no relationship whatsoever to the budget
resolution which was laid out at the beginning of the year. Yet, we
have no real progress in meeting the needs that we feel on this side of
the aisle with respect to the most crucial issue remaining in the
budget, which is education.
We also have seen, although one of the appropriation bills tries to
provide a fig leaf on this issue, we have seen this Congress take no
action on prescription drugs. We have seen this Congress take no action
on the Patients' Bill of Rights. Both of those issues are still pending
in one form or another in various appropriation bills. Yet, none of
them have any real prospect of being dealt with by this Congress before
we adjourn.
Now we are being asked to support another week's extension of the
deadline for finishing our business. Frankly, I have about had it. I
think the White House has, too. I do not expect to stand on this floor
and support any further continuing resolutions for more than one or two
days at a time. I do not believe it makes sense for us to continue to
drift along in this fashion.
What I sense is happening is that there is apparently a slow but
nonetheless stealthy plan to avoid our ever facing the hard votes on
education or on the Patients' Bill of Rights or on meaningful reform of
Medicare to include a prescription drug benefit. I do not believe that
this Congress should leave this city until we have dealt with all
three.
I do not say that because these happen to just be pet issues of mine.
I say that because America has always been, to me, defined by two
things. We have been defined by our passion for individual liberty, and
we have also been defined by our determination to see to it that the
experiences that we have in this country are shared experiences, and
that whether we are in good times or in troubled times, we are all in
it together.
That is why we have had traditionally such strong support for
American institutions and for the American democratic process by each
and every one of our citizens.
Mr. Speaker, the reason that education is important and the reason
prescription drugs are important and the reason the Patients' Bill of
Rights are important is because without actions like that, large
segments of our population feel that they have been and are being left
out of the blessings and benefits of this society.
There is no society in the world more blessed than is the society of
the United States. We have been given more riches, more natural beauty,
more geographic insulation from the trouble spots of the world than any
other Nation in the history of the globe.
Yet, in my view, this Congress is failing to live up to the
traditions of some of the great Congresses in the past in seeing to it
that we take these benefits and make certain that everyone has a decent
share.
The problem that we have, and it is why I voted against the energy
bill, for instance, is because that bill spent a lot of money, but it
spent it in no context. There are no rules that describe at this point
what will be spent or how far we can go in spending. But we wind up, we
wind up still refusing to act on the administration's education
priorities.
Now, the majority party has decided that in two areas of education,
they are going to put a significant amount of money. One is special
education, and the other is Pell grants.
I applaud those two actions. I am fully willing to embrace those
priorities. I just wish that the other side would be willing to embrace
our priorities.
I would call the attention of Mr. Bush to the actions of this
Congress. Mr. Bush in debates the past 2 weeks has talked a lot about
education, and he has talked about the bipartisan leadership that he
would like to extend to this place. I think bipartisan leadership
starts by having effective control of one's own party.
It seems to me that right now we could use some help from Mr. Bush,
because this Congress, while it is providing large amounts of money
across-the-board in many areas, is continuing to resist the necessary
actions to really make progress in reducing class size, to really make
progress in training our teachers, to really make progress in providing
a significant number of additional after-school centers so that our
young children, if they are in a family where they have two parents
working outside the home, so they have someplace to go after 2:30 or 3
in the afternoon where they can be under adult supervision and be in an
atmosphere where they can learn.
{time} 1045
All of these things ought to be embraced by both parties, but we are
not seeing them embraced by the majority party in this House.
And so I stand here this morning frustrated because we have a lot of
rhetoric that tries to place everyone on the side of education, but
this Congress, having a record, under the majority party's leadership,
having a record the last 6 years of trying to cut billions of dollars
out of previous years' expenditures for education. They are now
building on that record by trying to block a further expansion of
education initiatives that reflect needed national priorities which the
administration has taken as its own. To me, that is the major problem
with this continuing resolution today.
I do not see any purpose in kicking the can further down the road on
these continuing resolutions if we are not going to get the two or
three major things that we need to get out of this Congress in order to
call this a successful Congress; one being education, another being a
real, rather than a fictional, attack on the problems of our seniors
who need prescription drugs, and the third being the passage of a real
patients' bill of rights rather than the passage of a bill of goods
that masquerades as a patients' bill of rights.
So I will support this continuing resolution, but I do not expect to
stand here supporting any further long-term continuing resolutions
because, at this point, they do not seem to be doing any good in terms
of moving this place forward to recognizing our health care, our
Medicare and our education priorities that, above all, this Congress
ought to be addressing.
Mr. Speaker, how much time is remaining on each side?
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Pease). The gentleman from Wisconsin has
19\1/2\ minutes remaining.
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 6 minutes to the gentleman from
Missouri (Mr. Gephardt), the distinguished minority leader.
(Mr. GEPHARDT asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. GEPHARDT. Mr. Speaker, here we are again on another continuing
resolution some 11, 12, or 13 days into the fiscal year; and we have
not begun to finish our work. I am very disappointed that we come to
the floor again to debate another continuing resolution simply to keep
the government
[[Page H9823]]
going. We should have had all of the appropriation bills done 12 days
ago.
This Republican Congress has been so busy throwing money at things,
helping candidates, and our time and our energy have been so taken up
by the contrived 90-10 scheme put out by the other side, that we have
been unable to do our most basic work. My biggest fear is that in all
of this, education, which is the most important challenge and issue
facing our country, is being shortchanged. We should not be taking
another full week in which we drift aimlessly and squander, as
Republicans would have us do, key opportunities on education.
So we are going to vote for this resolution, but we are putting the
Republican leadership on notice. Until we have an opportunity to deal
with education, this is the end of the line on comfortable stop-gap
measures that keep the government open week by week. Democrats believe
that education is priority number one, two and three.
I know that many of my colleagues believe that we are talking about
the bare minimum on education; much more important an agenda than we
have had on any other issue. We need to give every child the time and
attention they need from adults and the life opportunities they
deserve. The three items that Democrats believe are the keys to
education are the following: tax cuts for school construction, hiring
new teachers and reducing class size, and funding key programs like
after-school and Pell Grants.
This is the bare minimum of what we need to do. And, unfortunately,
while Republicans have been on their spending spree, coming up with
false budgets to reduce the debt, education has been shoved to the side
by this Congress with a set of priorities that are skewed, to say the
least. We want a reasonable, bipartisan tax credit for school
construction, and we want funding for emergency repairs. But
Republicans are starving that priority because, while they talk about
their commitment to education, they do very little to back up that
commitment with the proper resources and the proper commitment to those
resources.
We want in Labor-HHS funding that is dedicated to hiring new
qualified teachers and reducing class size. But our friends on the
other side have created loopholes in the bill so big that the money
could be spent for anything.
Finally, as part of this first step this year, we support funding for
after-school programs so that our children can get the time and
attention they need to become productive, functional law-abiding
citizens. Listen to this. We have over 2 million people in jail in this
country. They do not pay taxes, they do not vote, they do not raise
their families, they do not give to charity. They are not functional
citizens. They cost us about $40,000 per person per year to hold them.
At the same time, we have 2 million jobs in this country that we
cannot fill. We are about to pass an H-1B law that would let more
foreign immigrants come into the country to fill these high-tech jobs,
and all of us support the legislation because we need to fill the jobs.
The answer to those two stark contradictory facts is that we are not
doing a good enough job with educating and raising our children so we
prevent them from going to jail, so we get them to take these jobs and
give them the education and the mental ability that they need to do it.
We have to do better and we cannot wait until next year to do better.
The opportunity is in front of us now, by giving our public schools and
our families the resources and the incentives that they need to lift up
every child.
So let us stop squandering our opportunities and let us work together
in a bipartisan fashion in these next few days on the most important
priority for the American people. Let us get our work done, but let us
do it in a bipartisan way. Let us stop spending our time on naming post
offices and passing resolutions that have little import or meaning. Let
us stop spending our time buying another week of time so that we can do
work that we should have done 3 months ago. Let us get to work in a
bipartisan way and serve the needs of the education of our children in
this bill.
Democrats will no longer support continuing resolutions to keep the
government running for weeks on end. We will support a bipartisan
education bill that finally helps the children of this country.
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New
Jersey (Mr. Pallone).
Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, let me follow up on what our Democratic
leader just said. I have to say, as one Member, that I am tired of
coming down here and passing these continuing resolutions, in this case
for another week, without getting our work done.
The fiscal year began for 2001 on October 1. We do not have a budget.
We have the majority of the appropriation bills out there, somewhere,
certainly not on the President's desk, that have not been resolved.
This Congress, under the Republican leadership, is simply not doing the
job.
There is time left. There is no reason why we have to go home or we
have to sit here and dilly dally over naming post offices, for example,
as the leader said. There are a number of important issues that need to
be addressed and that my constituents and the average American care
about: health care needs, a patients' bill of rights.
The Republican leadership keeps talking about how they want to deal
with the HMO abuses, but we do not see any legislation coming forward
that would solve the problem and get something done so that those
people who are being denied care or who are being denied a particular
operation or are having problems with access to health care have their
problems addressed.
We see the Republican presidential candidate talk about prescription
drugs, but there is nothing happening here in this Republican Congress
to address the problem of prescription drugs. The Democrats have put
forward a Medicare prescription drug proposal that would guarantee that
every senior citizen, every disabled person would get their
prescription drugs under Medicare; but we do not see any action here.
The Republicans are in charge. They do not bring this legislation up.
They do not sit down in a conference and try to resolve it so that we
can actually accomplish something so that our seniors have access to
prescription drugs.
Certainly on the education issue, I think the most important for many
Americans who are worried about their children and their children's
ability to get a quality education in the public schools, the Democrats
have put forward proposals saying that we want to spend some money for
school modernization, to reduce class size by hiring more teachers, but
the Republicans do not respond. Let us get our work done.
We have proposals out there on education. We know that the public
schools need help. We know that our local towns need some extra funding
in order to upgrade their schools; or if they are having overcrowded
classes, to build new schools. We know that by reducing class size kids
get a better education and they are functioning in a more disciplined
environment; yet the Republicans refuse to bring this up.
I am telling my colleagues again, as just one Democratic Member, I
will not vote for these continuing resolutions for a week any more
unless the Republican leadership is willing to come down here, get the
work done, and pass these appropriations bills and bring up the health
care and education initiatives that the people want. We should simply
stand here as Democrats, and any Member, saying that we want action. It
is not enough to just talk. We want action, and there is still time to
do it and work it out in a bipartisan way.
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 6 minutes.
Mr. Speaker, as I said several times before, the problem with these
continuing resolutions is not necessarily the time that is being taken.
There have been other Congresses that have not finished their work on
time either. But the question is will we do the really important things
that we need to do with that additional time, important things that we
should have done a long time ago.
It is true that over the next week we will pass a few additional
appropriation bills. After long delay, we have now reached agreement on
some of those bills, so a lot of the controversy has been leached out
of them. But in the end, we still face a couple of facts. We face the
likelihood that if the House proceeds in accordance with the majority's
plans, we will wind up having
[[Page H9824]]
passed appropriation bills about $45 billion above the level provided
in the original budget resolution which the majority party adopted and
which has governed virtually all of the turmoil that we have had over
the past 9 months on budget issues in this House.
{time} 1100
It appears that we will also wind up approaching some $18 billion to
$20 billion in spending above that requested by the President, much of
it for congressional priorities and congressional projects; and yet, as
I said earlier, we will not have responded to the major needs still
before us in the area of education, we will not see a real prescription
drug benefit passed for the American people, and we will not see a
meaningful Patients' Bill of Rights passed.
We do not want to see this Congress take action on those issues just
because they are individually important. We want them all to be dealt
with seriously and positively because they are all a necessary part of
strengthening the fabric of American society and making this a society
that we can all be just a little bit more proud of.
We hear talk about the ``end game'' for this session. Reporters ask
me every day, what is going to happen with the end game? What is the
end game?
I would point out that, for the people we are supposed to be helping,
this is no game. It is no game for parents who send their children to
falling down schools, overcrowded classrooms, in some cases teachers
inadequately prepared for the subjects that they are supposed to be
teaching and with no place where the kids can safely go at the end of
the school day because the school day does not coincide with parents'
workdays.
That is no game. That for those parents is a serious, serious problem
that deserves addressing by this Congress.
It is also no game when you run into the senior citizens who I have
run into, single women for instance, widows, who may be making about
$20,000 a year in retirement on a fixed income but shelling out 12 to
14 thousand dollars of that for prescription drug costs. Those are real
cases. And to them this issue also is no game. And they would, I think,
like to think that, with this extra time, we would be producing
meaningful action on those items. But I do not see the prospect of that
happening given the agenda of the majority party, and that is the real
futility in continuing to pass these continuing resolutions.
So, as I said, in order to keep the Government open, we will support
this, but no more resolutions of more than 1 or 2 days. If I had my
way, we would not pass anything more than a 1-day continuing resolution
for the rest of the year if the work is not done by the time this
resolution expires. And I do not expect it to be.
So I want to put the majority on notice that we are going to have to
operate on a very different set of rules around here if we are going to
get things done and get the right things done so we can go home with a
straight face and say we have done some really important things for the
American people.
Mr. Speaker, how much time do I have remaining?
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Pease). The gentleman from Wisconsin
(Mr. Obey) has 5 minutes remaining.
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield the balance of the time to the
distinguished gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer).
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished ranking member for
yielding me time. I regret that I was late getting here to speak.
I reiterate my respect, affection and empathy for the chairman of the
Appropriations Committee, who has tried to get this process going.
During debate of the last two CR's, I talked about that and made
similar comments. I am not going to spend so much time on the
appropriations bills. We are late. We have been late in the past, as I
am sure the chairman has observed earlier.
I rise today at the occasion of the passage of this CR to lament the
fact that not only have we not completed the appropriations bills,
which I know that the ranking member has spoken eloquently about
already, but we have some outstanding critical agenda items that have
been discussed in the two Presidential debates and the Vice
Presidential debate. There has been a lot of talk about how we are
going to work together and how we are going to have bipartisanship so
that we can have action.
There has been a lot of talk about the fact that we have not
accomplished certain objectives over the past few years. I lament the
fact that we have not accomplished those objectives, as well. In my
opinion, we have not accomplished them because we had leadership and a
majority in this House that did not want to accomplish them.
The Patients' Bill of Rights. We passed a bipartisan Patients' Bill
of Rights. Not only has the appropriations process been languishing,
but Patients' Bill of Rights has been languishing, unpassed, unsigned
and, as a result, unhelpful to the American public.
Prescription drugs. The debaters say they are for prescription drugs.
Some debaters say, well, why have you not gotten it done? Well, for the
same reason we have not gotten the appropriations bills done and we
need a CR, because the majority party has not moved them forward.
We want prescription drugs under Medicare for every senior guaranteed
them. And by the way, no government HMO, as some ads and the statement
of the chairman seem to reflect. We have not passed a prescription drug
bill, just as we have not passed the overwhelming majority of the
appropriations bills. Why? Because the majority has not sent them to
the President for signature.
Education, on everybody's radar screen, is the number one issue in
America because the public knows that educating our children is
critical to the future of our Nation.
The President stood, Mr. Speaker, on the dias in front of us and
said, we need to provide more classrooms, we need to provide more
teachers, and we need to provide smaller classes, particularly for our
young children in kindergarten to third grade. Why? So they can compete
in a world-class economy and be world-class citizens.
Both candidates talk about that. But the Labor-Health bill still
languishes with those provisions. Why? Because the majority has not
come to grips with passing legislation to ensure there is school
construction funding for more classrooms, safer classrooms.
We have not provided for the additional teachers that the President
asked for in January. Here we are 9 months later. Why? For the same
reason the appropriation bills languish and have not been signed by the
President of the United States.
Yes, the President has vetoed one appropriation bill. He sent it back
to Congress. That bill is now pending passage in the Senate. But most
of these bills have never gotten to the President, not because of the
chairman, but because the other side has not come to grips with
exercising its majority to pass the needed legislation.
So whether it is Patients', whether it is prescription drugs, whether
it is more classrooms for our children and more teachers so that to
ensure a quality education, those bills have not been passed. Yes, I
will vote for this CR. And, like the ranking member, I will implore our
majority to make sure that the next CR is for 1 day only so that we get
our work done. We must press forward not only with these appropriation
bills but with the critical agenda put before us by the President of
the United States 9 months ago.
Mr. Speaker, let's hope that the third time is a charm. Let's hope
that this third continuing resolution gives us the time we need to
finally complete our work on the fiscal year 2001 appropriations bills.
Let's hope the majority leader, Mr. Armey, is correct when he says
that we are within ``an inch or two from closure'' of the
appropriations process.
Because from where I'm standing--and I think the vast majority of
members might agree with me on this--we've still got a mile to go, it's
an uphill hike, and we've got legislative riders dragging us back down.
The President has signed only three appropriations bills into law.
He is expected to sign two others--agriculture and transportation.
But that leaves eight bills undone, including energy and water, which
was vetoed.
Now, I appreciate the Majority Leader's optimism. You might call it
irrational exuberance. However, I think most Members of this body tend
to agree with my friend from South Carolina, Mr. Sanford.
[[Page H9825]]
He is quoted in Rollcall this morning as saying: ``Anarchy reigns at
the moment. Nobody is quite sure what comes next.''
Over on the other side of Capitol Hill, Senator McCain didn't mince
words either. He commented: ``It's just what I predicted--the biggest
train wreck in history.''
Mr. Speaker, as I've said repeatedly, the blame for this budget
debacle does not lie at the feet of the Chairman of the Appropriations
Committee, my friend Mr. Young. I empathize with the Chairman. He has
done a very good job under trying circumstances.
But his hands have been tied in this process, specifically by the
GOP's unrealistic budget resolution that made a mockery of our
appropriations process this year.
And today, we're living with the fallout.
As my friend, Mr. Spratt, the ranking Member of the Budget Committee,
noted earlier this week, this Republican Congress--which pretends to be
fiscally disciplined--has already appropriated $10.6 billion more in
budget authority in five bills sent to the President than the President
requested for those bills.
Our sticking point continues to be the substantive riders, which are
a staple of GOP budget strategy:
Barring the EPA from issuing stricter limits on arsenic levels in
drinking water;
Preventing the EPA from requiring polluters to clean up the
contaminated sediments that they have deposited on river bottoms; and
Blocking the Interior Department from imposing new environmental
controls on the hard-rock mining industry.
I completely agree with Chairman Young, who was quoted on the hill
yesterday as saying: ``The thing that is holding us up are the non-
appropriations issues that should have been taken care of in
authorizing committees. If we only dealt with appropriations issues, we
would have been finished.''
Yes, we would.
But instead we are in a situation where the majority whip, Mr. DeLay,
says he doesn't ``have a clue'' when we will adjourn. This morning, he
is quoted as saying that this budget fight could ``go to the end of
October. It could go up to November 6.''
Mr. Speaker, the Republican majority has shown time and again that it
would rather block than lead. On a patients' bill of rights. On a
Medicare prescription drug benefit. On a minimum wage increase.
The American people have a right to demand more than the bare
minimum.
And, with yet another continuing resolution, this Republican majority
proves that it can't even give them that.
Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of the
time.
Mr. Speaker, I am really interested in this lengthy debate about all
kinds of things other than the CR. I appreciate the support that has
been indicated for passage of the CR because we need to do this. It
will give us the additional time that we need to complete the work.
But I want to remind my colleagues, who are my friends, Mr. Speaker,
the House did its job. Three months ago we completed our work on the
appropriations bills. But that is only part of the process. The other
part of the process is reconciling the differences between the House
and the Senate. That is the constitutional system. And then we have to
reconcile the differences between the Congress and the President.
Now, we have seen the President sign some of our appropriations bills
and we have seen him veto an appropriations bill, and we worked with
the administration closely to try to repair that bill to the point that
he would be willing to sign it. And I think in a matter of several days
that will happen and we will have the opportunity to pass that
legislative package back to the President.
The minority party and the majority party at the Member level and the
staff level have worked together. They have been at the table at the
staff level and Member level on all of these issues between our body
and the other body and including the White House. We had
representatives from the Clinton-Gore administration sitting with us to
try to work out the differences. And, Mr. Speaker, there have been many
differences. But slow but sure, we are resolving those differences.
But I am not going to take the time to respond to all of the
political statements that we have heard today because I listened to the
very distinguished minority leader, the gentleman from Missouri (Mr.
Gephardt), stand there in the well and appeal for a bipartisan, work-
together attitude.
Well, I am all for that. And I think that the gentleman who just
spoke would admit that my entire effort here as chairman is to work
together with both parties to get the best product that we can get. So
I want to stick with the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Gephardt).
I am not going to become partisan. I am not going to be political. I
am just going to say we need to pass this CR today and we need to get
serious about resolving these differences that exist between the
Congress and the President.
And then I would like to close on this thought, Mr. Speaker: It is
not that I do not enjoy a good political debate, because I do. I really
like politics. And outside of the House, where we are here to do the
people's business, people above politics, back in the campaigns I
really enjoy the political debate and the political exchanges. But I am
in a different mood today. Because early today, America came under
attack from terrorists.
An American naval ship was attacked by a suicide mission that blew a
gaping hole in the side of the USS Cole, an Arleigh Burke class
destroyer. It flooded the main engine room. At least four American
sailors lost their lives. There are 12 additional sailors missing or
unaccounted for, and there are more than 30 wounded. Some of them are
critically wounded.
America came under attack from terrorists. It is time that we try to
put aside as much of the partisan politics as we can and come together
recognizing that America, Republicans and Democrats and Independents
and whatever the parties might be, America came under attack today and
we cannot stand for that. We have got to make it known to the world
that we are not going to allow our country, our military, our sailors
who are on board those ships to come under attack and not respond.
And so, that is my mood today, Mr. Speaker. I want to get this CR out
of here so that we can get to the people's business.
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
Mr. YOUNG of Florida. I yield to the gentleman from Maryland.
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I want to associate myself with the remarks
of the chairman, who is one of the real leaders in our House and in
this Nation on defense policy.
We lament the loss of those four brave sailors. We pray for the
injured, the missing, and for their families. And we reiterate what the
chairman's sentiment that there will be no division, there will be no
partisanship, there will be no disagreement on standing together in
defense of our forces around the world to maintain freedom and peace.
I thank the gentleman for his comments and join with him in that
sentiment.
Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I thank the
gentleman for his comments. And I know what is in his heart. The
gentleman and I have been friends for a long time and have had some
differences but a lot of agreements. I appreciate the comments that he
just made. Because when America comes under attack, it is time for all
of us to come together to recognize that attack and do what has to be
done.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. All time for debate has expired.
Pursuant to House Resolution 627, the joint resolution is considered
read for amendment and 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 the third time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the passage of the joint
resolution.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the ayes appeared to have it.
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a
quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not
present.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Evidently a quorum is not present.
The Sergeant at Arms will notify absent Members.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 407,
nays 2, not voting 23, as follows:
[[Page H9826]]
[Roll No. 527]
YEAS--407
Abercrombie
Ackerman
Aderholt
Allen
Andrews
Archer
Armey
Bachus
Baker
Baldacci
Baldwin
Ballenger
Barcia
Barr
Barrett (NE)
Barrett (WI)
Bartlett
Barton
Bass
Becerra
Bentsen
Bereuter
Berkley
Berman
Berry
Biggert
Bilbray
Bilirakis
Bishop
Blagojevich
Bliley
Blumenauer
Blunt
Boehlert
Boehner
Bonilla
Bonior
Bono
Borski
Boswell
Boyd
Brady (PA)
Brady (TX)
Brown (FL)
Brown (OH)
Bryant
Burr
Burton
Buyer
Callahan
Calvert
Camp
Canady
Cannon
Capps
Capuano
Cardin
Carson
Castle
Chabot
Chambliss
Chenoweth-Hage
Clay
Clayton
Clement
Clyburn
Coble
Coburn
Collins
Combest
Condit
Conyers
Cook
Cooksey
Costello
Cox
Coyne
Cramer
Crane
Crowley
Cubin
Cummings
Cunningham
Danner
Davis (FL)
Davis (IL)
Davis (VA)
Deal
DeGette
Delahunt
DeLauro
DeLay
DeMint
Deutsch
Diaz-Balart
Dickey
Dicks
Dingell
Dixon
Doggett
Dooley
Doolittle
Doyle
Dreier
Duncan
Dunn
Edwards
Ehlers
Ehrlich
Emerson
Engel
English
Etheridge
Evans
Everett
Ewing
Farr
Fattah
Filner
Fletcher
Foley
Ford
Fossella
Fowler
Frank (MA)
Frelinghuysen
Frost
Gallegly
Ganske
Gejdenson
Gekas
Gephardt
Gibbons
Gilchrest
Gillmor
Gilman
Gonzalez
Goode
Goodlatte
Goodling
Gordon
Goss
Graham
Granger
Green (WI)
Greenwood
Gutierrez
Gutknecht
Hall (OH)
Hall (TX)
Hansen
Hastings (FL)
Hastings (WA)
Hayes
Hayworth
Hefley
Herger
Hill (IN)
Hill (MT)
Hilleary
Hilliard
Hinchey
Hinojosa
Hobson
Hoeffel
Hoekstra
Holden
Holt
Hooley
Hostettler
Houghton
Hoyer
Hulshof
Hunter
Hutchinson
Hyde
Inslee
Isakson
Istook
Jackson (IL)
Jackson-Lee (TX)
Jefferson
Jenkins
John
Johnson (CT)
Johnson, E.B.
Johnson, Sam
Jones (NC)
Jones (OH)
Kanjorski
Kasich
Kelly
Kennedy
Kildee
Kilpatrick
Kind (WI)
King (NY)
Kingston
Kleczka
Knollenberg
Kolbe
Kucinich
Kuykendall
LaFalce
LaHood
Lampson
Lantos
Largent
Larson
Latham
LaTourette
Leach
Lee
Levin
Lewis (CA)
Lewis (GA)
Lewis (KY)
Linder
Lipinski
LoBiondo
Lofgren
Lowey
Lucas (KY)
Lucas (OK)
Luther
Maloney (NY)
Manzullo
Markey
Mascara
Matsui
McCarthy (MO)
McCarthy (NY)
McCrery
McDermott
McGovern
McHugh
McInnis
McIntyre
McKeon
McKinney
McNulty
Meek (FL)
Meeks (NY)
Menendez
Metcalf
Millender-McDonald
Miller (FL)
Miller, Gary
Miller, George
Minge
Mink
Moakley
Mollohan
Moore
Moran (KS)
Moran (VA)
Morella
Murtha
Myrick
Napolitano
Neal
Nethercutt
Ney
Northup
Norwood
Nussle
Oberstar
Obey
Olver
Ortiz
Ose
Owens
Packard
Pallone
Pascrell
Pastor
Paul
Payne
Pease
Pelosi
Peterson (MN)
Peterson (PA)
Petri
Phelps
Pickering
Pickett
Pitts
Pombo
Pomeroy
Porter
Portman
Price (NC)
Pryce (OH)
Quinn
Radanovich
Rahall
Ramstad
Rangel
Regula
Reyes
Riley
Rivers
Rodriguez
Roemer
Rogan
Rogers
Rohrabacher
Ros-Lehtinen
Rothman
Roukema
Roybal-Allard
Royce
Rush
Ryan (WI)
Ryun (KS)
Sabo
Salmon
Sanchez
Sanders
Sandlin
Sanford
Sawyer
Saxton
Scarborough
Schaffer
Schakowsky
Scott
Sensenbrenner
Serrano
Sessions
Shadegg
Shaw
Shays
Sherman
Sherwood
Shimkus
Shows
Shuster
Simpson
Sisisky
Skeen
Skelton
Slaughter
Smith (MI)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Smith (WA)
Snyder
Souder
Spence
Spratt
Stabenow
Stearns
Stenholm
Strickland
Stump
Stupak
Sununu
Sweeney
Tancredo
Tanner
Tauscher
Tauzin
Taylor (MS)
Taylor (NC)
Terry
Thomas
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Thornberry
Thune
Thurman
Tiahrt
Tierney
Toomey
Towns
Traficant
Turner
Udall (CO)
Udall (NM)
Upton
Velazquez
Visclosky
Vitter
Walden
Walsh
Wamp
Waters
Watkins
Watt (NC)
Watts (OK)
Waxman
Weiner
Weldon (FL)
Weldon (PA)
Weller
Wexler
Weygand
Whitfield
Wicker
Wilson
Wolf
Woolsey
Wu
Wynn
Young (AK)
Young (FL)
NAYS--2
Baird
DeFazio
NOT VOTING--23
Baca
Boucher
Campbell
Eshoo
Forbes
Franks (NJ)
Green (TX)
Horn
Kaptur
Klink
Lazio
Maloney (CT)
Martinez
McCollum
McIntosh
Meehan
Mica
Nadler
Oxley
Reynolds
Stark
Talent
Wise
{time} 1135
So the joint resolution was passed.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
Stated for:
Mr. MALONEY of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably detained
during rollcall vote No. 527. Had I been present I would have voted
``yea.''
Mr. HORN. Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 527, Further Continuing
Appropriations for FY 2001, I was on legislative business and was not
able to make the rollcall. Had I been present, I would have voted
``aye.''
Mr. MICA. Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 528, I was unavoidably
detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''
____________________