[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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