[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 151 (Wednesday, November 20, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11712-S11714]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              OPPOSING THE LONG-TERM CONTINUING RESOLUTION

  Mrs. LINCOLN. Mr. President, I rise in opposition to the continuing 
resolution because I believe it is irresponsible for Congress to 
adjourn without fulfilling our constitutional obligations. I have in 
the past allowed short-term continuing resolutions to fund our 
Government in order to give my colleagues time to complete the 
appropriations process. But I cannot support the long-term continuing 
resolution which will simply allow Congress to go home for the rest of 
the year before our job is complete.
  As our Nation stands on the verge of going to war, it is beyond me 
how we can simply pass a bill to keep government spending at last 
year's levels. Yesterday's Washington Post reports that fire crews, 
police officers, emergency workers and others who would be the first on 
the scene in the event of a new terrorist attack haven't received any 
of the money that the President's budget promised them. I ask unanimous 
consent that this article be printed in the Record.

[[Page S11713]]

  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

               [From the Washington Post, Nov. 19, 2002]

                Spending Bill Delays Crimp War on Terror


                Congress's Inaction Slows Domestic Plans

                         (By Jonathan Weisman)

       With their political attention focused on establishing a 
     Department of Homeland Security, Congress and the White House 
     have given up funding many of the department's proposed 
     functions, at least in the short run. As a result, programs 
     such as trucking security, bioterrorism defense and customs 
     operations are strapped for cash, perhaps well into next 
     year.
       Congress's decision to fund the government at 2002 levels 
     until Jan. 11 could mean federal, state and local agencies 
     expecting large increases for emergency response, new 
     equipment and other needs will not see additional money until 
     spring, halfway through the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. 
     Budget experts say Congress is unlikely to pass any 2003 
     nondefense spending bills until February at the earliest.
       ``After the attacks of September 11, many of us anticipated 
     with urgency what should have been recognized by Congress--
     that all this money would have been passed by October 1,'' 
     said Matthew R. Bettenhausen, director of homeland security 
     for Illinois. ``Now, it's not going to be until calendar year 
     '03 that they even consider the president's proposals.''
       Spokesmen for various Federal agencies say their 
     departments are functioning fine under the temporary funding 
     measures, known as continuing resolutions. White House budget 
     officials say they can shore up programs as needed by 
     shifting funds from where they are not needed, or tapping 
     unspent money from the last fiscal year.
       But Federal officials speaking on condition of anonymity 
     say the stalemate will have serious consequences. The 
     director of the National Institutes of Health told Congress 
     in October that if his agency did not receive requested 
     funding increases soon, he would have to scale back 
     bioterrorism research grants scheduled to be awarded in 
     December and January. Biodefense ``is one program that was 
     slated to markedly increase in 2003, so a continuing 
     resolution there for any length of time will greatly impair 
     that program,'' Director Elias A. Zerhouni warned.
       Congress has provided the entire Federal Government's 
     bioterrorism program with $1.5 billion, a fraction of the 
     president's $4.3 billion request, said G. William Hoagland, 
     Republican staff director of the Senate Budget Committee.
       The Customs Service has reached agreements with nine 
     countries to inspect massive shipping containers heading to 
     the United States from 15 of the world's 20 largest ports, 
     but it will likely have to postpone the deployment of agents 
     that had been scheduled for January.
       The Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security 
     Administration has frozen hiring, even as it tries to ramp up 
     security at the nation's nuclear weapons plants and 
     laboratories. In a Nov. 15 memo, the agency's acting 
     administrator, Linton F. Brooks, told agency chiefs that 
     Congress's actions had presented ``a serious management 
     challenge'' that forced him to impose the freeze to avoid 
     large reductions in force later in the fiscal year.
       Major computer purchases to bolster the president's border 
     security initiative are on hold. And the newly established 
     Transportation Security Administration, operating on $466 
     million less than it expected for the next two months, has 
     had to withhold $20 million in truck security grants, a 
     senior Transportation Department official said.
       The agency also has deferred reimbursements to the airlines 
     for cockpit door retrofits. TSA employees scattered around 
     429 airports are without computers or administrative support. 
     And if Congress does not act quickly in January, when TSA 
     employees must receive a mandatory 3.1 percent pay raise, the 
     agency will have to furlough hundreds of its workers.
       ``There are a lot of agencies that are going to be in the 
     soup on this thing,'' said one administration official, who 
     refused to be identified. ``But the biggest problems are at 
     TSA. They're going to be clobbered.''
       Rep. David R. Obey (Wis.), the ranking Democrat on the 
     House Appropriations Committee, called the performance ``a 
     disgrace'' and ``a spectacular abdication of 
     responsibility.'' House Appropriations Committee Chairman 
     C.W. Bill Young (R-Fla.) was less forceful but conceded that 
     Congress's action was ``not the best way to fund the 
     government.''
       Homeland security is just one area that fell victim to 
     Congress's failure to pass new appropriations bills. House 
     Republicans were bitterly divided all year between moderates, 
     who wanted to spend more on nondefense domestic programs, and 
     conservatives, who wanted to stick to the president's austere 
     spending limits. In the end, the House passed only two of the 
     11 annual nondefense appropriations bills.
       Democrats on the Senate Appropriations Committee pushed 
     through all 13 of their spending bills at levels well above 
     House levels, but they managed to get only one nondefense 
     spending bill through the full Senate.
       To be sure, some homeland defense functions are moving 
     forward. The temporary spending resolution funds the 
     government at 2002 levels, but it also carries forward 
     emergency spending approved shortly after Sept. 11, 2001. For 
     example, the $151 million fund that Congress provided the 
     Food and Drug Administration for an emergency food safety 
     program will remain flush. The stopgap spending resolution, 
     expected to pass the Senate this week, also allows the 
     president to redirect $640 million from other programs to the 
     newly created Homeland Security Department.
       And in some cases, more money would do little good for 
     agencies still struggling to come to grips with their new 
     security responsibilities. Congress has failed to provide the 
     U.S. Border Patrol with funds it would need to hire 570 
     agents that lawmakers have requested. But, said patrol 
     spokesman Mario Villarreal, the agency's recruiting efforts 
     could not reach last year's goal of 10,551 Border Patrol 
     agents, in part because about 750 agents quit to become air 
     marshals for the TSA.
       Still, Congress's failures have left bitter feelings, 
     especially with organizations that backed politicians in 
     exchange for promises they fear will be broken.
       ``It's going to be my members, wherever the next 
     [terrorist] event is, God forbid, that are the first on the 
     scene, and we have a federal government that has been unable 
     to put any money on the ground to help them,'' said Harold A. 
     Schaitberger, president of the International Association of 
     Fire Fighters.
       And for state governments facing severe fiscal crises, the 
     failure of Congress to provide federal help has been 
     particularly ill-timed, said Philip G. Cabaud Jr., Delaware's 
     homeland security adviser.
       President Bush and Congress can claim great success in 
     establishing the framework for the nation's eventual response 
     to terrorist threats. Before lawmakers officially close the 
     107th Congress, they will likely have established a 
     Department of Homeland Security and approved port security, 
     border security and bioterrorism measures. But none has been 
     fully funded.
       The president's budget promised that $3.5 billion would 
     begin flowing in October to ``first responders,'' but fire 
     crews, police officers and emergency workers are still 
     waiting for even a penny.
       One executive of the American College of Emergency 
     Physicians recalled an invitation to the White House in June 
     to watch Bush sign the Bioterrorism Preparedness Act, which 
     authorized Congress to send $520 million to hospital 
     emergency rooms. So far, though, only about $135 million has 
     been made available, and the official said her organization 
     has seen none of it.
       Two years ago, Congress began providing $360 million for 
     federal grants to local firehouses. The House promised to 
     increase that number to $400 million this year. The Senate 
     promised $900 million. So far, firefighters have gotten 
     nothing.
       ``There has been a tremendous amount of rhetoric and a 
     tremendous amount of utilization [by politicians] of fire 
     services whose new status was purchased at such a high 
     cost,'' said Garry L. Briese, executive director of the 
     International Association of Fire Chiefs. ``But their actions 
     do not reflect the words.'' End of story
       Mr. President, it's not just our counter terrorism 
     operations that need to be funded. Our domestic priorities 
     are also hurting. For example, the Administration has boasted 
     about the education bill, the No Child Left Behind Act, which 
     the president signed in 2002. Yet we haven't come close to 
     funding the programs authorized in the bill. Leaving town 
     without funding these and other priorities is irresponsible.
       We have also failed to act on the Medicare give-back bill 
     (S. 3018), leaving physicians, rural hospitals, nursing 
     homes, ambulance providers and pathologists without adequate 
     reimbursements from the federal government. Adjourning 
     without ensuring proper Medicare reimbursements to these 
     providers means they will have to choose between helping 
     patients while operating at a financial loss or discontinuing 
     services. What an unfair choice to leave those who help our 
     senior citizens!
       Adjourning now will also leave states like Arkansas in the 
     lurch. The Senate Finance Committee passed a three-year 
     reauthorization of welfare, but we didn't complete this bill 
     on the Senate floor. Arkansas has one of the six state 
     legislatures that meet biennially and is one of the 19 states 
     that must pass two-year budgets. Our legislature meets early 
     next year. How will they be able to plan their budget if they 
     don't know what federal money they will be getting for their 
     TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) program? TANF 
     is one of the major federal programs designed to help needy 
     families with children. An estimated 5.5 million parents and 
     children depend on welfare benefits for a monthly cash check. 
     An additional 1 million families do not receive a cash 
     payment, but depend on TANF for child care and/or 
     transportation subsidies which are essential to enable 
     parents to work and move toward self-sufficiency. How can we 
     leave 6.5 million people in the lurch?
       Lastly Mr. President, it took headlines and plummeting 
     stock shares to alert the nation to the vast fraud and greed 
     which had inflated the Wall-Street stock bubble. The 
     government and the Congress had no clue what was going on and 
     the public suffered. In order to remedy this problem the 
     Congress overwhelmingly approved the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. This 
     new law authorized a 77 percent increase in SEC funding to 
     $776 million.

[[Page S11714]]

     The increase was included in both the Sarbanes bill here in 
     the Senate and in the House-passed H.R. 3764. But now we are 
     learning that the White House doesn't want to fund the full 
     authorization and is ready to propose nearly a third less 
     than that. That is outrageous and I think the public should 
     pay attention to this issue. Unless the authorization is 
     funded it is meaningless. Meaningless, Mr. President, a 
     hollow position crafted for an age of thirty second sound 
     bites. The public should not allow this to go on.
       Congress should fund the priorities we have authorized. 
     That is why I oppose the long-term continuing resolution.

                          ____________________