[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.