[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 169 (Thursday, November 20, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H11663-H11665]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.J. RES. 78, FURTHER CONTINUING 
                    APPROPRIATIONS, FISCAL YEAR 2004

  Mr. LINDER. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I 
call up House Resolution 450 and ask for its immediate consideration.
  The Clerk read the resolution, as follows:

                              H. Res. 450

       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. 78) 
     making further continuing appropriations for the fiscal year 
     2004, 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.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Bass). The gentleman from Georgia (Mr. 
Linder) is recognized for 1 hour.
  Mr. LINDER. Mr. Speaker, for purposes of debate only, I yield the 
customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Frost), pending 
which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During consideration 
of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only.
  Mr. Speaker, H. Res. 450 is a closed rule that provides for the 
consideration of H.J. Res. 78, a continuing resolution that will ensure 
further appropriations for fiscal year 2004.
  The rule provides for 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 for one 
motion to recommit.
  Mr. Speaker, the provisions of the most recent continuing resolution, 
H.J. Res. 75, are scheduled to expire this Friday, November 21. The 
House Committee on Appropriations continues to work hard to complete 
the unfinished appropriations business of Congress, and we are hopeful 
that this work can be completed in the coming days. The resolution 
before us today, H.J. Res. 78, ensures funding through this weekend 
until November 23.
  The House of Representatives passed all of its fiscal year 2004 
appropriations bills long ago. We should complete Foreign Operations, 
Transportation-Treasury appropriate bills in the very near future. In 
addition, negotiations are under way to complete Agriculture, VA-HUD, 
Commerce-Justice-State, Labor-HHS, and the District of Columbia 
appropriations bills as well. However, to ensure that essential 
government services continue to operate while the omnibus 
appropriations bill is completed, this rule makes in order another 
continuing resolution to give us the additional time to complete the 
appropriations process in an orderly manner.
  Mr. Speaker, under the joint resolution that H.J. Res. 450 makes in 
order, the provisions of the most recent continuing resolution will be 
extended for

[[Page H11664]]

2 more days. The Committee on Rules approved this rule last night. I 
urge my colleagues to join me in supporting its passage.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. FROST. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  (Mr. FROST asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. FROST. Mr. Speaker, here we go again. Another month has passed 
and this Republican government still refuses to do its most basic job, 
funding the Federal Government that they control. That is why we are 
here, once again, to pass yet another short-term continuing resolution 
to keep Republican incompetence from shutting down the Federal 
Government.
  Mr. Speaker, I do not know why Republicans refuse to do the job 
taxpayers pay them for, especially while millions of those same 
taxpayers cannot find jobs on their own. Perhaps they are so busy 
twisting arms to dismantle Medicare and force seniors into HMOs that 
they cannot be bothered with deciding how badly to shortchange 
education in this year's spending bills. Or maybe the White House has 
been consumed with spending their expensive efforts to rebuild Iraq 
that they do not have time to worry about America. Who knows. But it is 
clear that this Republican government has stopped working for the 
American people.
  Mr. Speaker, I do not know if you watched ``West Wing'' last night on 
television, but actually the subject of the ``West Wing'' program was 
this exact issue, a continuing resolution. And at that point you had a 
Republican Congress trying to blame a Democratic President for closing 
down the government. But here, of course, we have a Republican Congress 
and a Republican President. So what is going on here? Republican 
President, Republican Congress, and we still have to have a short-term 
continuing resolution because those folks cannot do their job.
  Just take a look at the record. Today, millions of hard-working 
Americans no longer share in the prosperity that they enjoyed during 
the Democratic-led economic boon of the 1990s. In fact, since the 
Republican Party took over the government nearly 3 years ago, more than 
3 million American jobs have been lost in the private sector. Or to put 
it another way, since George W. Bush got his job, millions of Americans 
have lost their jobs. That is the worst jobs record of any President 
since Herbert Hoover in the Great Depression.
  Over the same period, Republican fiscal irresponsibility has turned 
record surpluses into astronomical and out-of-control deficits, 
increasing the death tax on all Americans and threatening the future of 
Medicare and Social Security. In the private sector, Mr. Speaker, that 
kind of failure would get you fired. But Republicans are counting on 
their special interest friends to save their political skins. And they 
have spared no taxpayer expense to do their work.
  Take, for example, the small elite group of big contributors who fund 
Republican campaigns like the Bush campaign Pioneers and now the Bush 
campaign Rangers. They are undoubtedly happy because this Republican 
government has drained the U.S. Treasury by repeatedly passing 
expensive tax breaks for the wealthiest few. And earlier this week 
Republicans gave big polluters a pass to keep fouling the air of some 
of America's major metropolitan areas, including my home in north 
Texas.
  Now, Mr. Speaker, Republicans are desperately trying to pull the wool 
over the eyes of America's seniors so that they can shower billions of 
dollars on HMOs, insurance companies, and the big drug companies. Under 
the Republican plan, millions of senior citizens would pay more and get 
less for Medicare. Up to one in four Medicare beneficiaries would 
actually pay more for prescription drugs than they do right now. Up to 
7 million seniors would be forced to join an HMO and give up their 
choice of doctor or pay higher Medicare premiums. Between 2 and 3 
million retirees would lose the drug coverage they now get from their 
former employers. And millions of seniors would go without drug 
coverage for months each year and be forced to pay premiums year round 
even when they are not getting any drug benefits.
  While seniors lose under the Republican plan, drug companies and HMOs 
win big. Republicans are giving insurance companies a $12 billion slush 
fund. They are giving big drug companies $139 billion in windfall 
profits because they are actually making it illegal for Medicare to 
negotiate lower prescription prices for seniors. That is right, Mr. 
Speaker, Republicans can find billions of dollars for HMOs and drug 
companies, but they cannot afford year-round drug coverage for senior 
citizens. No wonder Republicans do not want their plan to take effect 
until after the 2004 elections. They are afraid that once seniors sit 
down and do the math they will see the Republicans have sold them a 
bill of goods.
  This kind of outrage, Mr. Speaker, is simply business as usual under 
this Republican government. Nothing gets done for the American people, 
but Republicans and their allies do plenty of harm to the American 
people. It is a shameless abuse of power, Mr. Speaker; and the American 
public are the victims.
  Meanwhile, we have before us another 2-day continuing resolution, 
which is the subject of this rule today.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

                              {time}  1100

  Mr. LINDER. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. FROST. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from 
Wisconsin (Mr. Obey), the ranking member of the Committee on 
Appropriations.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time.
  Mr. Speaker, I simply take the time to indicate that the House has no 
choice but to proceed to pass the short-term CR in hopes that the House 
will come closer to finishing its work by the time we have to pass 
another one. But let me also say that I would hope that we would use 
the time constructively so that Members still can get out of here for 
the year on a reasonable schedule.
  I note last night, for instance, that we are within a hair's breadth 
of having total agreement on the VA-HUD appropriations and on the CJ 
bill. The transportation bill has already been filed, and it is hoped 
that the foreign ops bill will be filed and acted upon also. That would 
mean that we could reduce considerably the number of bills that would 
have to go into the omnibus. I have no particular ax to grind about 
whether they do or they do not, but it would seem to me that it would 
be one way to at least assist on unsnarling what remains to be done 
before we finish.
  With that, I would simply say when the CR comes, I hope that we could 
dispose of it in a favorable fashion so we can get on with the 
remainder of our work for this week.
  Mr. LINDER. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers. I reserve the 
balance of my time.
  Mr. FROST. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Let us be very clear about what is going on here. The current 
continuing resolution runs out tomorrow. The Republican leadership is 
giving itself another 2 days. So by passing this next CR, that takes us 
through Sunday. They will not tell us when the next CR, how far it will 
go, whether we will be here Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, 
Wednesday of next week doing the people's business. They will not tell 
us when the omnibus bill is going to come to the floor or whether it 
will come to the floor. They will not tell us how long the next CR will 
run, whether it will run to December 8 or whether it will run until 
some time in February. Either they simply do not know, or they will not 
tell. Either way, they make it very difficult to legislate in an 
orderly fashion.
  We would all like to wind up the business for this year. I would hope 
that the Republican leadership can finally get their act together, 
bring the remaining appropriations bills or an omnibus bill to the 
floor in an orderly way, so that we can conclude the people's business 
this year and not continue to operate on a 2- or 3-day CR while the 
Republicans try and figure out what their next step is.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. LINDER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, let me just say to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Frost)

[[Page H11665]]

that it is not that we do not want to inform them. It is that we do not 
know.
  We are dealing with people in the other body who have not given us 
any indication of when they are prepared to move. But I will say that I 
agree 100 percent with the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey). We are 
moving piece by piece on these. And our side would like very much to 
pass them one at a time and get out of here Friday night or Saturday. I 
do not think it will be that soon on Friday night, but we are very 
close to getting our work done on the appropriations process so we 
would like to do that one at a time.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the 
previous question on the resolution.
  The previous question was ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Bass). The question is on the 
resolution.
  The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that 
the ayes appeared to have it.
  Mr. FROST. 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.
  Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, this 15-minute vote on House 
Resolution 450 will be followed by 5-minute votes on the following 
motions to suspend the rules:
  S. 286, by the yeas and nays;
  S. 686, by the yeas and nays.
  The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 406, 
nays 2, not voting 26, as follows:

                             [Roll No. 645]

                               YEAS--406

     Ackerman
     Akin
     Alexander
     Allen
     Andrews
     Baca
     Bachus
     Baird
     Baker
     Baldwin
     Ballance
     Ballenger
     Barrett (SC)
     Bartlett (MD)
     Barton (TX)
     Bass
     Beauprez
     Becerra
     Bell
     Bereuter
     Berkley
     Berman
     Berry
     Biggert
     Bilirakis
     Bishop (GA)
     Bishop (NY)
     Bishop (UT)
     Blackburn
     Blumenauer
     Blunt
     Boehlert
     Boehner
     Bonilla
     Bonner
     Bono
     Boozman
     Boswell
     Boucher
     Boyd
     Bradley (NH)
     Brady (PA)
     Brady (TX)
     Brown (OH)
     Brown (SC)
     Brown, Corrine
     Brown-Waite, Ginny
     Burgess
     Burns
     Burr
     Burton (IN)
     Buyer
     Calvert
     Camp
     Cannon
     Cantor
     Capito
     Capps
     Capuano
     Cardin
     Cardoza
     Carson (IN)
     Carson (OK)
     Carter
     Case
     Castle
     Chabot
     Chocola
     Clyburn
     Coble
     Cole
     Collins
     Conyers
     Cooper
     Costello
     Crane
     Crenshaw
     Crowley
     Culberson
     Cunningham
     Davis (AL)
     Davis (CA)
     Davis (FL)
     Davis (IL)
     Davis (TN)
     Davis, Jo Ann
     Davis, Tom
     Deal (GA)
     DeFazio
     DeGette
     Delahunt
     DeLauro
     DeLay
     DeMint
     Deutsch
     Diaz-Balart, L.
     Diaz-Balart, M.
     Dicks
     Dingell
     Doggett
     Dooley (CA)
     Doolittle
     Doyle
     Dreier
     Duncan
     Dunn
     Edwards
     Ehlers
     Emanuel
     Emerson
     English
     Eshoo
     Etheridge
     Evans
     Everett
     Farr
     Fattah
     Feeney
     Ferguson
     Flake
     Foley
     Forbes
     Ford
     Frank (MA)
     Frelinghuysen
     Frost
     Gallegly
     Garrett (NJ)
     Gerlach
     Gibbons
     Gilchrest
     Gillmor
     Gingrey
     Gonzalez
     Goode
     Goodlatte
     Gordon
     Goss
     Granger
     Graves
     Green (TX)
     Green (WI)
     Greenwood
     Grijalva
     Gutierrez
     Gutknecht
     Hall
     Harman
     Harris
     Hart
     Hastings (FL)
     Hastings (WA)
     Hayes
     Hayworth
     Hefley
     Hensarling
     Hill
     Hinchey
     Hinojosa
     Hobson
     Hoeffel
     Hoekstra
     Holden
     Holt
     Honda
     Hooley (OR)
     Hostettler
     Houghton
     Hoyer
     Hulshof
     Hunter
     Hyde
     Inslee
     Israel
     Issa
     Istook
     Jackson (IL)
     Janklow
     Jefferson
     Jenkins
     John
     Johnson (CT)
     Johnson (IL)
     Johnson, E. B.
     Johnson, Sam
     Jones (NC)
     Kanjorski
     Kaptur
     Keller
     Kelly
     Kennedy (MN)
     Kennedy (RI)
     Kildee
     Kilpatrick
     Kind
     King (IA)
     King (NY)
     Kingston
     Kirk
     Kleczka
     Kline
     Knollenberg
     Kolbe
     Kucinich
     LaHood
     Lampson
     Langevin
     Lantos
     Larsen (WA)
     Larson (CT)
     Latham
     LaTourette
     Leach
     Lee
     Levin
     Lewis (CA)
     Lewis (KY)
     Linder
     Lipinski
     LoBiondo
     Lofgren
     Lowey
     Lucas (KY)
     Lucas (OK)
     Lynch
     Majette
     Maloney
     Manzullo
     Marshall
     Matheson
     Matsui
     McCarthy (MO)
     McCarthy (NY)
     McCollum
     McCotter
     McCrery
     McDermott
     McGovern
     McHugh
     McInnis
     McIntyre
     McKeon
     McNulty
     Meehan
     Meeks (NY)
     Menendez
     Mica
     Michaud
     Millender-McDonald
     Miller (FL)
     Miller (MI)
     Miller (NC)
     Miller, Gary
     Miller, George
     Mollohan
     Moore
     Moran (KS)
     Moran (VA)
     Murphy
     Murtha
     Musgrave
     Myrick
     Nadler
     Napolitano
     Neal (MA)
     Neugebauer
     Ney
     Northup
     Norwood
     Nunes
     Nussle
     Oberstar
     Obey
     Olver
     Ortiz
     Osborne
     Ose
     Otter
     Owens
     Oxley
     Pallone
     Pascrell
     Pastor
     Paul
     Payne
     Pearce
     Pelosi
     Pence
     Peterson (MN)
     Peterson (PA)
     Petri
     Pickering
     Pitts
     Platts
     Pombo
     Pomeroy
     Porter
     Portman
     Price (NC)
     Pryce (OH)
     Putnam
     Quinn
     Rahall
     Ramstad
     Rangel
     Regula
     Rehberg
     Renzi
     Reyes
     Reynolds
     Rodriguez
     Rogers (KY)
     Rogers (MI)
     Rohrabacher
     Ros-Lehtinen
     Ross
     Rothman
     Roybal-Allard
     Royce
     Ruppersberger
     Rush
     Ryan (OH)
     Ryan (WI)
     Ryun (KS)
     Sabo
     Sanchez, Linda T.
     Sanchez, Loretta
     Sanders
     Sandlin
     Saxton
     Schakowsky
     Schiff
     Schrock
     Scott (GA)
     Scott (VA)
     Sensenbrenner
     Serrano
     Sessions
     Shadegg
     Shaw
     Shays
     Sherwood
     Shimkus
     Shuster
     Simmons
     Simpson
     Skelton
     Slaughter
     Smith (MI)
     Smith (NJ)
     Smith (TX)
     Smith (WA)
     Snyder
     Solis
     Souder
     Spratt
     Stark
     Stearns
     Stenholm
     Strickland
     Stupak
     Sullivan
     Sweeney
     Tancredo
     Tanner
     Tauzin
     Taylor (MS)
     Terry
     Thomas
     Thompson (CA)
     Thompson (MS)
     Thornberry
     Tiahrt
     Tiberi
     Tierney
     Toomey
     Towns
     Turner (OH)
     Turner (TX)
     Udall (CO)
     Udall (NM)
     Upton
     Van Hollen
     Velazquez
     Visclosky
     Vitter
     Walden (OR)
     Walsh
     Wamp
     Waters
     Watson
     Watt
     Waxman
     Weiner
     Weldon (FL)
     Weldon (PA)
     Weller
     Wicker
     Wilson (NM)
     Wilson (SC)
     Wolf
     Woolsey
     Wu
     Wynn
     Young (AK)
     Young (FL)

                                NAYS--2

     Filner
     Jackson-Lee (TX)
      

                             NOT VOTING--26

     Abercrombie
     Aderholt
     Clay
     Cox
     Cramer
     Cubin
     Cummings
     Engel
     Fletcher
     Fossella
     Franks (AZ)
     Gephardt
     Herger
     Isakson
     Jones (OH)
     Lewis (GA)
     Markey
     Meek (FL)
     Nethercutt
     Radanovich
     Rogers (AL)
     Sherman
     Tauscher
     Taylor (NC)
     Wexler
     Whitfield

                              {time}  1125

  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas changed her vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''
  Mr. MORAN of Virginia changed his vote from ``nay'' to ``yea.''
  So the resolution was agreed to.
  The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
  Stated for:
  Mr. FOSSELLA. Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 645 I was unavoidably 
detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

                          ____________________