[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 136 (Wednesday, October 16, 2002)]
[House]
[Pages H7950-H7952]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.J. RES. 123, FURTHER CONTINUING 
                    APPROPRIATIONS, FISCAL YEAR 2003

  Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the 
Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 585 and ask for its 
immediate consideration.
  The Clerk read the resolution, as follows:

                              H. Res. 585

       Resolved, That upon the adoption of this resolution it 
     shall be in order without intervention of any point of order 
     to consider in the House the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 123) 
     making further continuing appropriations for the fiscal year 
     2003, and for other purposes. The joint resolution shall be 
     considered as read for amendment. The previous question shall 
     be considered as ordered on the joint resolution to final 
     passage without intervening motion except: (1) one hour of 
     debate on the joint resolution equally divided and controlled 
     by the chairman and ranking minority member of the Committee 
     on Appropriations; and (2) one motion to recommit.
       Sec. 2. House Resolutions 550, 551, and 557 are laid on the 
     table.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Washington (Mr. Hastings) 
is recognized for 1 hour.
  Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, for purposes of debate only, 
I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. 
Hastings), my namesake, pending which I yield myself such time as I may 
consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is 
for the purposes of debate only.
  (Mr. HASTINGS of Washington asked and was given permission to revise 
and extend his remarks.)

[[Page H7951]]

  Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, House Resolution 585 is a 
closed rule providing for the consideration of H.J. Res. 123, Making 
Continuing Appropriations for the fiscal year 2003. The rule provides 1 
hour of debate in the House equally divided and controlled by the 
chairman and ranking minority member of the Committee on 
Appropriations.
  The rule waives all points of order against consideration of the 
joint resolution and provides one motion to recommit. The rule also 
provides that House Resolutions 550, 551, and 577 are laid on the 
table.
  Mr. Speaker, H.J. Res. 123 makes further continuing appropriations 
for fiscal year 2003 and provides funding at current levels through 
November 22, 2002. This measure is necessary in order that all 
necessary and vital functions of government may continue uninterrupted 
until Congress completes its work on spending measures for the next 
fiscal year.
  Accordingly, Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to pass both the rule 
and the underlying resolution.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I 
may consume, and I thank the gentleman from Washington, my namesake, 
for yielding me the time.
  Mr. Speaker, the House engages in a very important debate today. It 
is a debate about priorities like the economy, Social Security, and 
education. More fundamentally, it is a debate about whether the 
American people will have a Congress that does the job it was elected 
to do.
  Nearly 2 years ago, Republicans took control of the Federal 
Government in Washington. They quickly forced through their own very 
partisan, very ideological economic plan, one centered around big 
budget-busting tax breaks for some of the wealthiest in our society.
  Mr. Speaker, what has happened since the Republican economic plan 
passed? Long-term unemployment is at an 8-year high, and nearly 2 
million Americans have lost their jobs. Consumer confidence is at its 
lowest level since November of 2001, and prescription drug prices are 
still sky high, leaving senior citizens unable to afford vital 
prescription medicine.
  Corporate scandals, the massive criminality at Enron, WorldCom and 
the like, have rocked the economy and devastated the retirement plans 
of millions of Americans; but my colleagues, the House Republicans, 
overwhelmingly voted against real pension protection legislation a few 
months ago, blocking Democrats' efforts to protect Americans' 
retirement plans.
  The DOW has hit a 5-year low. Overall, the stock market has lost $4.5 
trillion in value since Republicans took control in Washington last 
January.

                              {time}  1645

  How have Republicans responded to the weakest economy in 50 years? 
Well, the President is busy traveling the country on a record-breaking 
fund-raising binge. And let me add a footnote right there, because a 
lot of people talk about the previous President having done the same 
thing. But during that same period of time, he managed somehow or 
another to deal with the economic undertakings of this country.
  Instead of working with Democrats, the President is traveling rather 
than seeking to stimulate the economy. He is busy raising money to 
stimulate Republican campaigns. And I would add a footnote there. That 
is his right and his prerogative, but it should be his absolute 
responsibility to ensure that the economy is strong.
  Also, Republicans are pulling out all the stops to do as my friend, 
the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) says: cut and run before the 
public realizes that they really have done nothing to address the 
economic mess they have created. Simply put, they are more interested 
in saving political skins than in saving the American economy, or at 
least that is how it appears to me.
  One week ago, I came to this Chamber and made the following 
statement: ``Somewhere along the lines we are losing our rudder; and we 
have things that need to be done, and Republicans need to do it and 
Democrats need to do it. Liberals need to do it and conservatives need 
to do it on behalf of this country. We cannot continue down this 
path.'' Well, guess what? We are continuing down this path, and I feel 
that this must end and it must end now.
  The majority, not content with doing nothing, will not even allow our 
colleague, the gentlewoman from Indiana (Ms. Carson), for example, to 
offer her amendment, which would bring needed Federal dollars for 
children's health care needs. I consider this to be shameful.
  Clearly, Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``no'' vote on this rule and a similar 
vote on the underlying continuing resolution.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my 
time.
  Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may 
consume to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey).
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, as my friends on this floor know, I usually 
quote my old friend Archie the Cockroach in trying to comment on 
actions being taken by an institution which is often as wacky as the 
Congress of the United States, and so last night I went all through my 
book from Archie and I could not find anything that was appropriate, 
because this situation is so ludicrous.
  So I finally, looking for inspiration, thought of Ronald Reagan. In 
the movie King's Row, he woke up and was told that he had lost his legs 
in a train accident. He looked up from his hospital bed and said, 
``Where's the rest of me?''
  Mr. Speaker, if I were the Federal budget, I would be saying to the 
Republican leadership of this House, ``Where's the rest of me?'' 
Because even though we have been in session since January, the only two 
appropriation bills that are going to become law if this resolution 
passes, the only two appropriation bills that will become law before 
the election, will be the defense appropriation bill and the military 
construction appropriation bill.
  So those Members in Congress who think that the only thing government 
ought to do is defend the shores and deliver the mail will get at least 
half their wish. At least they will be defending our shores, but we 
will not even have passed the bill that deals with the post office. And 
we also will not have passed the bills that deal with the Nation's 
education budget, the Nation's health care budget, the Nation's 
environmental protection budget, the Nation's science budget, nor will 
we have passed the agriculture appropriations bill. We will just put 
the government on automatic pilot.
  Also, this Congress will run out of town, not doing one blessed thing 
to deal with the problem of unemployment compensation, not doing one 
blessed thing to deal with the shortfall that many States have in the 
Medicare program, not doing anything at all to help the providers with 
respect to any givebacks on the Medicare program, and not doing 
anything to stimulate the economy by providing additional jobs for 
highway construction.
  This Congress has lost all claim to respectability. It has lost all 
claim to go to the public and ask for another 2-year contract, because 
this Congress, at the direction of the Republican leadership of this 
House, is walking away from its responsibilities to deal with virtually 
every domestic problem we have. The American public thinks that we 
ought to be good enough to walk and chew gum at the same time, and they 
think that now that we have spent every day but Labor Day dealing with 
Iraq that we ought to be able to deal with our own domestic problems. 
But, instead, the Republican majority wants to walk out of town and 
say, ``Oh, sorry, folks, we ran out of time.'' I do not think people 
will be very impressed by that.
  Now, I know this is not the wish of the majority on the Committee on 
Appropriations. They are as willing as we are on the minority side to 
do our job, but they are not being allowed to do it by their own 
caucus, by their own leadership. So people will go home and what will 
they talk to their voters about instead? Oh, they will have one 
rollcall in this pocket talking about the fact that we have 
memorialized ourselves about National Motherhood Week, and they will 
have another rollcall in another pocket talking about some other 
useless resolution that has passed putting us on the side of God, 
motherhood, and apple pie. But when it comes to actually attacking the 
domestic problems, oh, no, no, too busy.

[[Page H7952]]

  The fact is that we know what the reason is. There is an internal war 
in the Republican Caucus. They have lost their ability to govern. They 
have lost their ability to do things. And so the only thing they can 
apparently agree on is not to do things. That is some recommendation to 
take to the American people.
  So, Mr. Speaker, I am going to vote against this rule, and I am going 
to vote against the resolution that follows because, in my view, any 
resolution which says we are going to stop doing what we are supposed 
to do until November 22, way after the election, is a spectacular 
abdication of responsibility not worthy of this body.
  Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the 
gentlewoman from Connecticut (Mrs. Johnson), who is a real leader in 
this body, in fact in the Congress, on health care issues
  Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for 
yielding me this time, and I appreciate the comments of my colleague 
from Florida who says we have things that need to be done, and also the 
sentiments of my colleague from Wisconsin who says we need to get 
things done.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise because we have gotten things done. We passed a 
budget resolution. The Senate did not act. We passed a number of budget 
bills. The Senate did not act. We passed a prescription drug bill, the 
biggest expansion of Medicare in its history; the Senate did not act. 
We provided prescription drugs for 44 percent of our seniors, 
essentially free, only a $2 copayment for generics and up to $5 for 
prescriptions; the Senate did not act. We passed a payer package, 
because if we do not fix the problems of how Medicare pays physicians, 
we will see physicians dropping out of the program. They are facing the 
most startling and incredible increase in malpractice costs that we 
have ever seen in a single year. And the current law is going to cut 
their reimbursements by 5 percent, when they got cut last year 5 
percent last year.
  The House has acted. We passed a package that changes the law so that 
our physicians will not be forced out of Medicare. And we are already 
seeing the effects of our failure to act at home. Doctors are taking 
fewer new patients and they are reducing the number of operations they 
will perform, avoiding the high-risk ones so that they can keep their 
malpractice costs under control. This House passed malpractice reform; 
the Senate did not act. This House passed payer reform for hospitals, 
for doctors, for home health agencies, for nursing homes; the Senate 
did not act.
  This House passed regulatory reform, bipartisan. All but three or 
four people in the whole House of Representatives voted for this bill 
that will take an enormous paperwork burden off our providers, free 
time to care for patients, reduce paperwork costs, and, by gum, provide 
a much fairer regulatory environment for a lot of our smaller providers 
who will simply be pushed out of the system if we do not reform the way 
we manage Medicare. It was totally bipartisan. The Senate did not act.
  The House passed a bill that will cut prices for prescription drugs 
to our seniors more dramatically than any bill that has ever come to 
the floor of this House, because we inserted a provision that allows 
the negotiators to go below the best price rule. That alone, just that 
one provision, $18 billion off the price of drugs for our seniors. The 
Senate did not act.
  I support the bill, and I support adjourning at the call of the 
Chair. Because if the Senate acts, then we can come back on homeland 
security, on prescription drugs, and on anything else that they find at 
their convenience to do.
  Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I 
may consume just to respond to my colleague from Connecticut, who very 
movingly points to things that we have done and that the other body has 
not done. But I note that she made no mention of the fact that our 
exacting responsibility is to pass appropriations measures, and my last 
count was that we have not done all of the appropriations at this time.
  Now, I do not think that is the responsibility of the chairman, the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young), or the ranking member, the 
gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey), in the sense that they did not do 
their job. I think it is the fact that the Republicans are in disarray 
and cannot seem to get those appropriations measures here to the floor.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. 
Oberstar), my good friend and the ranking member of the Committee on 
Transportation and Infrastructure.
  (Mr. OBERSTAR asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this 
time.
  Mr. Speaker, for those who heard the debate last week, I would like 
to come somewhere between Turkish and Russian, although I can probably 
do this in French, in Creole, in Italian, and a few other languages; 
but let us try English, and explain that under the first two continuing 
resolutions, Congress provided for all programs to continue ongoing 
activities at a pro rata share of the fiscal year 2002 funding level, 
October 1 through October 11. We clearly intended the Federal aid 
highways program to continue at the level of $31.8 billion, and the 
Congressional Budget Office scored the resolutions accordingly.