Congressional Record, Volume 146 Issue 148 (Tuesday, December 5, 2000)

[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 148 (Tuesday, December 5, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11550-S11552]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

MAKING FURTHER CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE FISCAL YEAR 2001

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the clerk will
report the joint resolution.
The legislative clerk read as follows:

A joint resolution (H.J. Res. 126) making further
continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2001 and for other
purposes.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. There will be 15 minutes equally divided.
The Senator from Alaska.
Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, this is a continuing resolution to give
us until the close of business Thursday to complete the activities of
this Congress. That is a large order, but I think it can be done if all
Members of the House and Senate will cooperate.
We have in conference the major bill, the Health and Human Services
bill, which we were prepared to act upon, but there were four basic
differences in the conference that we could not resolve with the White
House before the election. We are working on that. I can report to the
Senate that our majority leader has just given us information about the
meeting that he and other leaders had with the President last evening.
I can tell you from my perspective, based on the report of the majority
leader, I believe it is possible to finish by Thursday night if there
is a will in both the House and Senate to do so.
It is my judgment--I am sure we are going to hear from the
distinguished Senator from West Virginia that he shares this opinion--
that the work of this Congress should be finished by this Congress. We
put a lot of time and effort into these bills that are still pending in
conference. I do believe it is possible for us to finish if all Members
will cooperate with us.
The President has consented to making some reductions in the amounts
proposed in these bills before the election. We are working on that
with the staff of the House now in the appropriations process. I
believe we will be able to report back sometime before the close of
business today if the progress has led us to the point where we could
file, or ask the House to file, a conference report tonight so it could
be taken up by the House tomorrow.

[[Page S11551]]

Again, I will be pleased to report later. For now, it is my urging
that Members of the Senate work with us to try to finish the business
of this Congress, including the passage of all of the remaining
appropriations bills, by the time given in this continuing resolution,
which is the close of business Thursday.
I reserve the remainder of my time and suggest the absence of a
quorum, the time not to be charged until the Senator from West Virginia
claims his time.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Currently, there are 5 minutes 14 seconds remaining on this side and
7\1/2\ minutes remaining on your side.
Mr. BYRD. I thank the Chair.
Mr. President, the Senate has now before it the latest in a series of
continuing resolutions in order to keep the operations of the Federal
Government going for another 48 hours. This will be the 17th continuing
resolution for the fiscal year which began on October 1 of this year--
the 17th continuing resolution for the fiscal year. This is the largest
number of continuing resolutions that has ever been required in order
to enable Congress to complete its work on the 13 annual appropriations
bills.
As Senators are aware, we have yet to complete action on 4 of the 13
fiscal year 2001 appropriations bills; namely, the Commerce-Justice-
State-Judiciary, Labor-HHS, legislative branch, and Treasury-General
Government appropriations bills. We are now into the third month of
fiscal year 2001, and we have yet to get our work done on these very
critical appropriations bills.
It seems to me that the best way to set the tone for the 107th
Congress, which will begin on January 3, 2001, would be to finish the
work of the 106th Congress immediately. The time has long since passed
for us to end partisan bickering over issues in these various
appropriations bills. Why should it take so long to reach a compromise
on the remaining issues? What in the world is keeping us from
completing action on these appropriations bills 2 months after the new
fiscal year has begun?
We have been aware of those issues for months. Most of these issues
do not involve appropriations at all. Rather, they involve legislative
riders which have nothing to do with the operation of the Federal
Government as far as funding levels are concerned. Of course,
legislative riders are not new. The Wilmot Proviso was such a rider
back in the days when slavery was being discussed.
These issues involve ergonomics, immigration, tobacco lawsuits, et
cetera, matters that properly belong in the jurisdiction of other
committees. We should not continue to tie up appropriations bills for a
fiscal year that began more than 2 months ago--haggling over issues
such as these.
The partisanship should end right now, right here this week, on these
remaining appropriations bills. We should not permit ourselves to delay
action on these matters until the next Congress or the next
administration. The time has come for this 106th Congress to complete
its work now; clean the slate so that the 107th Congress and the new
administration can begin with a fresh start.
We have a tremendous opportunity here. We can demonstrate to the
American people and to the world that even though the Presidential
election is still in the courts, the people's branch--the people's
branch--is here, the people's branch is functioning, and the people's
branch intends to get our work done. We can demonstrate to the Nation
and we can demonstrate to the world that there is stability in this
Government even though the next President's name and the next
President's party are yet not known.
The way we wind up this year's business can be a constructive
harbinger for the way we approach next year's business with a new
President and a closely divided Senate and House. We can start now to
reassure the American people that we can stop the bickering, stop the
wrangling, and begin to behave as adults instead of as 4-year-olds.

We can show the new Senators of both parties how to reach across the
aisle for the good of the Nation. Comity and compromise will have to be
the watchwords in the new year, and we can begin practicing that new
tone right now.
I hope we can pass these four remaining appropriations bills over
which the distinguished chairman, over which the staffs, over which the
Members of both parties, both sides of the aisle, have spent hours and
hours and days in efforts to complete the work, and I hope we can go
home to ponder our new responsibilities. Repeatedly passing 48-hour
continuing resolutions, or 24-hour continuing resolutions, and
continuing to try to play for some partisan advantage sets exactly the
wrong tone for next year's changed circumstances.
Senators, let us employ our intellects and our considerable talents
for the good of the Nation. Let us do our duty and fund the Government,
as we were expected to be doing. There is no advantage to putting off
this work, no advantage whatsoever to putting it off any longer. There
is only the very possible danger of poisoning the well from which we
all must drink in a new and very different reality setting next year.
So I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to work together
with Chairman Stevens and myself and with the leadership in seeing to
it that we work together in a spirit of honest compromise to wrap up
the remaining matters on the last four appropriations bills and get
them to the President's desk for his signature this week.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska.
Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I join with Senator Byrd on most of the
comments he made. I am constrained to point out that I did argue with
the White House at length not to put us through the process of having
1-day CRs. It is true this is the 17th one, but the bulk of them were
for 1 or 2 days. And it takes us 2 days to pass one resolution, 1 day
in the House and 1 day over here. As a consequence, we haven't been
able to get anything done because we have been busy passing continuing
resolutions, so we work the next day on another continuing resolution.
I share the frustration of the Senator from West Virginia with this
process. The Senator is absolutely right; we are going into another
year in just a matter of days, a time when this body will be split, 50
votes on each side of the aisle. In our Appropriations Committee, we
work basically on a bipartisan basis. What we are asking is for the
Senate and the House to work together now in these next 2 days and let
us wind up this business. The State-Justice-Commerce bill is finished,
for all intents and purposes. The Treasury-Postal and legislative bill,
that was ready to be signed--and it wasn't signed because of a
disagreement over the Health and Human Services bill--we were told
would have been signed. So as a practical matter, we have one bill that
is really in controversy, and that is the Health and Human Services
bill.
As I reported to the Senate before the Senator returned, I tell my
good friend, Senator Byrd, our leaders reported that the President has
indicated a willingness to agree to some changes in that bill to meet
the objections that were raised to the version of the bill prior to the
election. I think we can do that today.
Unfortunately, once again we are in a situation where both Houses are
involved in elections for the coming Congress. We will be involved
tomorrow in indoctrination of new Senators for the next Congress. I am
told that if we don't finish by Thursday, we will have to finish by
Saturday, which means we will have to spend all day Thursday working on
another continuing resolution to be able to stay until Saturday. This
foolishness has to stop, if we are going to wind down this Congress and
finish the business of this Congress in this calendar year. I think we
can.
We are waiting now, Senator Byrd and I, to get together with Members
of the House. Both Houses are involved in meetings for organization of
the next Congress. I plead with Members to help us wind this down. We
are within literally just two or three issues to be resolved on the
Health and Human Services bill, and I think we can put them

[[Page S11552]]

all together. I hope we will bring one resolution before the House and
the Senate to approve all three bills. That can be done by Thursday
night if there is goodwill here and the comity Senator Byrd has asked
the Senate to show at this time.
For myself, I look forward to the challenge of working with a 50-50
balance in the Senate. It is going to be a great challenge for all of
us, and it is going to be an opportunity for us to demonstrate to the
American public that the Senate is still the basic portion of our
Government that deals with resolution of conflicts. This is supposed to
be a debating society, a debating body. I think it will be for 2 years
to come. We are going to be doing our business right here on the floor,
to a great extent. With the help of the Senate, we will finish this
bill.

Does the Senator wish any more time?
Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, if the Senator will yield.
Mr. STEVENS. Yes.
Mr. BYRD. I think we are all aware of the monstrous hoax that has
been pulled upon the American people, the hoax that this year was the
opening year of the 21st century. This year is the closing year of the
20th century. That is according to the old math as well as the new
math. I hope it won't be said that the Senate dabbled and dabbled and
waited until the 21st century, which begins on January 1, to complete
the appropriations bills of the 20th century. Let's be about our work.
Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, the Senator makes a good point. I will
not argue with the Senator about which century it is. I do believe that
next year is the first year of the next century. I join him in that.
Mr. President, I yield back the remainder of any time I may have.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. All time has expired. The question is on the
third reading of the joint resolution.
The joint resolution was ordered to a third reading and was read the
third time.
Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
There appears to be a sufficient second.
The question is, Shall the joint resolution pass? The clerk will call
the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. REID. I announce that the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Leahy) is
necessarily absent.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Crapo). Are there any other Senators in
the Chamber desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 99, nays 0, as follows:

[Rollcall Vote No. 295 Leg.]

YEAS--99

Abraham
Akaka
Allard
Ashcroft
Baucus
Bayh
Bennett
Biden
Bingaman
Bond
Boxer
Breaux
Brownback
Bryan
Bunning
Burns
Byrd
Campbell
Chafee L.
Cleland
Cochran
Collins
Conrad
Craig
Crapo
Daschle
DeWine
Dodd
Domenici
Dorgan
Durbin
Edwards
Enzi
Feingold
Feinstein
Fitzgerald
Frist
Gorton
Graham
Gramm
Grams
Grassley
Gregg
Hagel
Harkin
Hatch
Helms
Hollings
Hutchinson
Hutchison
Inhofe
Inouye
Jeffords
Johnson
Kennedy
Kerrey
Kerry
Kohl
Kyl
Landrieu
Lautenberg
Levin
Lieberman
Lincoln
Lott
Lugar
Mack
McCain
McConnell
Mikulski
Miller
Moynihan
Murkowski
Murray
Nickles
Reed
Reid
Robb
Roberts
Rockefeller
Roth
Santorum
Sarbanes
Schumer
Sessions
Shelby
Smith (NH)
Smith (OR)
Snowe
Specter
Stevens
Thomas
Thompson
Thurmond
Torricelli
Voinovich
Warner
Wellstone
Wyden

NOT VOTING--1

Leahy

The joint resolution (H.J. Res. 126) was passed.

____________________