Congressional Record, Volume 149 Issue 170 (Friday, November 21, 2003)

[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 170 (Friday, November 21, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H12228-H12229]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

FURTHER CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS, FISCAL YEAR 2004

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to the order of the House
just adopted, I call up the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 79) making
further continuing appropriations for the fiscal year 2004, and for
other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration.
The Clerk read the title of the joint resolution.
The text of House Joint Resolution 79 is as follows:

H.J. Res. 79

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled, That Public
Law 108-84 is amended by striking the date specified in
section 107(c) and inserting ``January 31, 2004.''
Sec. 2. Section 8144(b) of the Department of Defense
Appropriations Act, 2003 (Public Law 107-248), as amended by
Public Law 108-84, is further amended by striking ``November
21, 2003'' and inserting ``January 31, 2004''.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House today,
the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young) and the gentleman from Wisconsin
(Mr. Obey) each will control 10 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young).
Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, yesterday the House passed H.J. Res. 78, the fifth
continuing resolution for fiscal year 2004, which extends the date of
the current CR through Sunday, November 23. The Senate has chosen to
amend this CR so that it would remain in effect until Monday, November
24.
We have, in turn, decided with the Senate leadership just to
introduce a clean CR, H.J. Res. 79, that we are now considering. That
would extend the date of the CR to January 31, 2004. I think I should
be very clear of what this means. It is not our intention with this CR
to allow it to run through January 31, but it will allow us great
flexibility in scheduling the completion of our work on the final
appropriations bills and at the same time ensure that there will not be
any disruption in government operations. And I would like to point out,
Mr. Speaker, that the Committee on Appropriations has done its job and
did so quite a long time ago, but some of the issues that are keeping
us from completing work on the actual bills have nothing to do with
appropriations. But, nevertheless, they are there, and we do have to
deal with them, and we are dealing with them as best we can.
We are proceeding with our work on the remaining appropriations
bills. And as my colleagues know, there are two conference reports that
have been ready for some time to file, the conference report on
Transportation and Treasury and the conference report on Foreign
Operations. However, as we proceed, we will finish the remaining bills
as quickly as we can, and it will be leadership's decision on when the
bills will be filed and when we will vote on it. We are proceeding with
our work as diligently as we can.
Mr. Speaker, I believe this CR is noncontroversial, and I urge the
House to move the legislation to the Senate since the current CR does
expire today.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker I yield myself 6 minutes.
Mr. Speaker, as this joint resolution demonstrates, we are in another
year that simply refuses to end. Last year we did not see this Congress
finish the work that was supposed to be done by October 1 until well
into the winter of the next calendar year. At that time the majority
party in the House blamed that inability to get the work done on the
fact that there was a majority of the other party in the other body.
This year they do not have Tom Daschle to kick around anymore. This
year the Republicans control it all. They control the White House. They
control the House. They control the Senate. They control the schedule.
They control what gets to the floor. They control how long the votes
are held open. They control everything. And yet we are in a situation
where tonight, long after the fiscal year is supposed to be over, we
still have not seen the budgets passed for VA-HUD, for the State
Department, for the Justice Department, for the Commerce Department. We
have yet to see the foreign aid budget pass. We have yet to see the
budget for the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, social
services agencies pass and the agriculture budget. I think we ought to
ask why.
I do not believe that we are in this box because of any failure of
the Committee on Appropriations leadership. I think we are in this box
because the Republican House leadership is insisting on having every
decision made in a top-down style. That means that the only real
decisions that count except on minor matters are those made in the
office of the Speaker or in the office of the majority leader.
No conferees are appointed unless they agree with the leadership's
position on major issues. And yet even after rigging those conferences,
even after stacking those conferences, when they still cannot win the
votes that they need to win in those stacked conferences, they simply
adjourn those conferences and then put legislation together in some
off-corner office without any meaningful participation by anybody
except perhaps some unelected members of the leadership's staff. So
much for the legislative process in what used to be regarded as the
greatest deliberative body in the world.
This process is about as respectful of rank and file Members as an
AARP board meeting is respectful of the senior citizens they supposedly
represent. On the same night that legislation is going to be considered
that will bankrupt Medicare, we see the ultimate degradation of the
legislative process at the same time as it is demonstrated in the
appropriations process.
It is not often, Mr. Speaker, that one can do in senior citizens and
the democratic process on the same night, but the House leadership
should be congratulated because they have managed to find a way.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 2 minutes.
I just would like to point out, and I have done this so many times
that it does not hurt to be repeated. The House completed its work
during the summer, ahead of the end of the fiscal year. And I
appreciate the cooperation we had from both parties as we proceeded
with our appropriations bills. I am not here to blame anybody, and I
certainly would not blame anybody but circumstances.
The Committee on Appropriations, as the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr.
Obey) pointed out, we had to do all of last year's work this year in
January and February. Then we had three supplementals plus we did the
13 regular bills. This Committee on Appropriations has done its work.
It has done its work well, and it has done its work

[[Page H12229]]

on time, as the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) has conceded. There
are other problems.
One of the problems, and I do not know that anybody is going to like
to hear this especially on my side of the aisle, one of the problems is
this tremendous desire to solve legislative problems that the
authorizing committees either cannot or will not solve. They are put
onto appropriations bills, and they ask us to solve them because
appropriations bills have to pass, Mr. Speaker. They are the only bills
here really that have to pass. So we become a magnet for all of those
issues that authorizers cannot solve, and we try to do the best we can.
I think we are on the verge of having completed this job for this year.
I do not think it does any good to blame anybody. In fact, I would
like to say that the chairman of the Appropriations Committee in the
Senate is an outstanding leader, a strong, dynamic leader, who is very
knowledgeable and understands the process totally. He understands the
issues as well as anybody that I know. But he has a very difficult
situation in the Senate, and he has done the best job that he could.
Anyway, Mr. Speaker, we are closing in on this. We are really
prepared. We have been prepared for 3 weeks to file the Transportation
and Treasury appropriations bill. We have been prepared for a week to
file the conference report on the Foreign Operations appropriations
bill. And they can be completed in a very short period of time.
The other remaining issue would be the omnibus bill that includes
five appropriations bills that have not been completed in conference.
And we are very close to having that completed. We are very close to
being able to file that bill and vote on it. As a matter of fact, we
had hoped that we would file it tonight. A lot of changes happened
during the day. And every time we make a change, it takes a little
extra time. So we probably will not file that bill tonight unless the
House remains in session very late.
Anyway, I would agree that the process has not worked the best, but I
would also say that I compliment the Members of House and especially
the members of the Committee on Appropriations in the House and the
staff that worked so diligently with us. We did our job. We have done
our job, and we are attempting to pursue the completion of the whole
process.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 4 minutes.
Mr. Speaker, as the gentleman from Florida has indicated, the
Commerce-Justice bill could very easily have been brought back to this
floor separately and passed separately. The Transportation bill could
very easily have been brought back to the floor and passed separately.
The Foreign Operations bill could very easily have been brought back to
the bill floor and passed separately. The Agriculture the same and the
VA-HUD bill the same.
The problem is, as the gentleman indicated, that there are many other
issues that are being drug into the appropriations process. And we also
see the situation complicated by the fact that the House Republican
leadership, despite votes to the contrary on a number of issues, is
insisting on seeing an outcome on a number of these issues which is at
variance with the expressed wishes of the Members of the House. And I
think therein lies the reason for the delay and delay and delay.
I think the problem that we have, Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from
Florida, my good friend, indicated that the committee product is
serving as a magnet for other authorizations. I think a better metaphor
would be that it is looking more and more like a garbage truck. And the
problem we have is that this bill has not been allowed to proceed
because I think the House leadership is still trying to determine what
bags of garbage have to be tossed down to the truck before the truck is
driven through here in the dead of night.

{time} 2000

So that is the choice that we face, Mr. Speaker. It is not a pretty
sight, and the outcome is not going to be very good. But there is not
much we in the minority can do to affect either the scheduling or to
affect how much garbage is tossed on the truck before it is run through
the Capitol. I just hope the smell is not too bad before it is over.
Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote on the resolution.
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I ask for a ``yes'' vote, and I
yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Shimkus). All time for debate as
expired.
The joint resolution is considered read for amendment.
Pursuant to the order of the House of today, the previous question is
ordered.
The question is on engrossment and third reading of the joint
resolution.
The joint resolution was ordered to be engrossed and read a third
time, and was read the third time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the passage of the joint
resolution.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the ayes appeared to have it.
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, on that, I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further
proceedings on this question will be postponed.

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