[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 174 (Tuesday, November 25, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S15933-S15935]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       THE APPROPRIATIONS PROCESS

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I join with my colleagues to decry this 
appropriations process. This process has fallen apart. Despite the hard 
work of the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and the 
bipartisan effort of members of the House and Senate Appropriations 
Committees, the omnibus bill is parked and the engine is cold.

[[Page S15934]]

  Why? Why is it that funding for 11 of the 15 departments of this 
Government is two months late? Why is it that the Nation's veterans 
haven't received funding? Why is it that our classrooms have been 
relegated to the sidelines? Why is it that health care, law 
enforcement, education, roads, airports, embassy security, worker 
safety, job training, farmers are put off, day after day? It is because 
the White House has insisted on legislating. The White House has 
overplayed its hand and, as a result, the nation is not served.
  On Thursday, the Nation will pause to celebrate Thanksgiving. But our 
colleagues on the other side of the aisle have decided to deliver to 
the Senate a turkey of an omnibus appropriations conference report. 
This turkey is filled with stuffing and all the trimmings, but as we 
stand here today, few Senators know what it is stuffed with. What we do 
know is that this turkey has been specially carved for special 
interests.
  The process for producing this bill was just one more example of the 
President's disrespect for the Congress. My way or the highway is the 
President's mantra. He expects the Congress to rubber stamp his budget.
  Initially, the conference process was bipartisan. Chairman Stevens 
wanted to do the right thing in producing this bill. The ranking 
members on the seven bills were at the table and worked out reasonable 
compromises on the bills. I commend Chairman Ted Stevens and House 
Chairman Bill Young for their efforts to get this bill done in a 
balanced way.
  But when it came time to make the tough decisions, the leadership 
went behind closed doors with the White House at the table. And they 
served up a turkey.
  They took a balanced package that was worked out by the conferees and 
at the eleventh hour insisted that they had to have it all. They 
insisted on changes that were not even contemplated when the bills were 
before the House and Senate.
  The President prevailed on every one of his veto threats.
  The overtime regulation prohibition, which passed the Senate by vote 
of 54-45 was dropped; virtually identical Cuba sanction provisions that 
were in both the House and Senate versions of the Transportation/
Treasury bill were dropped, as was a Cuba sanction provision in the 
Senate version of the Agriculture bill; the 1 year limitation on the 
FCC media ownership rule was turned into a permanent cap at 39 percent; 
the House language in the Transportation/Treasury bill, blocking OMB's 
plan to contract out 400,000 Federal workers was dropped. A bi-partisan 
compromise that was worked out by the conferees was rejected by the 
White House and what remains provides so many loopholes for OMB that 
little protection is provided for Federal workers.
  This is a bad bill.
  There are many provisions that are controversial and were not 
considered by the Senate. There is language that permits overfishing in 
the Northeast fishery. There is language that would mandate that the 
Justice Department destroy background check records for the purchase of 
guns within 24 hours of the gun purchase. These matters were never 
debated in the Senate because the Commerce/Justice/State bill was never 
debated in the Senate.
  There is language in the omnibus conference report that would 
postpone the country of origin labeling rule that was enacted as part 
of the Farm bill. Rather than the 1-year delay that was in the House 
bill, there is a 2-year delay, breaking up the balance of the 2002 Farm 
bill. The DC portion of the bill contains $13 million for approximately 
2,000 school vouchers.
  The White House's approach to Congress is my way or the highway. 
Well, this turkey of a bill wandered out on the highway and the rights 
of Senators to amend legislation and the needs of the American people 
got crushed. Whenever the Senate Republican leaders decide to bring 
this turkey to the floor, the Senate will be asked to vote on this as a 
conference report, with no opportunity for amendment.
  Let's look at the overtime issue. This omnibus appropriations bill 
does not include the overtime pay protections included in the Senate 
Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations bill. 
That provision was included in that bill on a 54-45 vote in the Senate 
in early September. The House of Representatives voted to instruct its 
conferees to the Appropriations bill to accept the Senate language on 
overtime on a vote of 221-203. Yet the provision was dropped. It should 
be clear to the working men and women of this country that it was the 
Republican leadership, at the behest of the White House, that killed 
the overtime pay protections in the omnibus appropriations bill despite 
a majority of members in both the House and Senate voting to protect 
the overtime rights of American workers. As a result, the White House 
is responsible for the pay cut that 8 million American families will 
receive this holiday season.
  On the overtime issue, Congressman DeLay recently said, ``We're 
sticking with the White House. We're going to win.'' White House Chief 
of Staff Andrew Card, on November 19, said the White House was 
unwilling to move away from its position of supporting the Department 
of Labor's proposed rules. ``We'll stick to it,'' he said.
  In September, Members of Congress received a letter from several 
women's organizations that concluded, ``Millions of working women would 
see their pay reduced and their workdays lengthened.'' Well, as far as 
the President is concerned it is my way or the highway and the Senate 
effort to protect American workers is gone.
  Let's look at the issue of the FCC media ownership cap. The original 
provision included in both the House and the Senate CJS appropriations 
bills limited funding to the FCC for purposes of keeping the media 
ownership cap at 35 percent for the next year. The CJS conferees agreed 
to the language. But behind closed doors, the White House said no, not 
good enough.
  In a back room, the Republican Leadership and the White House changed 
the rules. Instead of a 1-year limitation, we now have a ``permanent'' 
fix, authorizing the cap to be raised to 39 percent. A permanent fix 
was never debated by the Senate. This is a policy decision that should 
be made by the authorizing committees. Instead, it was made by a few 
individuals and that authorizing language is now being placed in an 
unamendable appropriations conference report.
  Let's look at the gun issue. As part of a carefully negotiated 
agreement, the C/J/S conferees agreed to drop language that was in the 
House bill that would have reduced the amount of time that the Justice 
Department has to retain records from gun purchases from ninety days to 
immediate destruction. Yet, the White House said that was not 
satisfactory. Agreements reached between House and Senate Republicans 
and Democrats did not make the cut for this White House.
  A significant national security provision, a counter-terrorism 
initiative approved by Congress, is being gutted by the Bush White 
House. Under current law, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms 
can retain for 90 days the records from gun purchases. This 90-day 
period gives the law enforcement community the opportunity to find 
individuals purchasing weapons who should simply not have access to 
those weapons.
  It is a simple matter of law enforcement, of national security. Yet 
the Bush White House wants no 90 day cushion. This administration is 
insisting that any federal record associated with the purchase of a 
weapon be destroyed after just 1-day. This current 90 day cushion is 
not a delay on the actual purchase. This is not a step that infringes 
on an American's right to bear arms. But it is a better protection for 
America's national security. At a time when we are in a heightened 
state of alert for terrorist attack, should we not provide law 
enforcement with more than 24 hours to examine information on weapons' 
purchases?
  This administration's own Department of Justice's Office of Legal 
Counsel, in an October 1, 2001, legal opinion concluded that having 
data from the gun transactions would aid in the investigation of 9/11. 
But for the White House, it is ``my way or the highway.'' No cushion, 
no security.
  Among the many outrages that I find with the substance of this 
Omnibus Appropriations bill and the process in which it was developed, 
centers around the language regarding President Bush's so-called 
``competitive sourcing'' initiative. Competitive

[[Page S15935]]

sourcing is President Bush's euphemism for throwing a federal employee 
onto the unemployment line for the purpose of contracting out his work 
to a private company.
  Division F of this Omnibus Appropriations Act includes the 
Transportation, Treasury and General Government Appropriation bill. One 
will find in that division of the bill, under section 647, a largely 
meaningless and ineffective provision, that is rife with loopholes 
intended to mask the Bush administration's determined efforts to fire 
thousands of Federal employees. This provision did not always read this 
way. Indeed, the conferees on the Transportation, Treasury and General 
Government Appropriations bill met in open conference on Wednesday, 
November 12th and it was anticipated at that time that the conference 
agreement would be sent to the President as a freestanding bill. That 
conference was chaired by the very able Subcommittee Chairman Senator 
Shelby. I was a conferee on that bill and I was proud to sign the 
conference report when it was presented to me.
  The original conference agreement reached by the members of that 
conference committee included a sound and balanced policy to govern the 
President's competitive sourcing initiative. The conference agreement 
ensured that there would be uniform rules for this initiative across 
all agencies of the Federal Government. It also ensured that the 
administration would have to demonstrate meaningful cost savings to the 
taxpayers before contracting out federal work. The agreement also 
provided Federal employees an opportunity to appeal a wrongful 
contracting out decision. Under the Bush administration's regulations, 
only private contractors have that appeal right.
  That tentative conference agreement was agreed to as a substitute for 
the amendment that was included in the House bill that was championed 
by Congressman Van Hollen of Maryland. The Bush White House made it 
quite clear to all the conferees that inclusion of the Van Hollen 
amendment would result in the Transportation/Treasury bill being 
vetoed. Ever since the day that conference concluded--Wednesday, 
November 12th--we have been waiting for the conference agreement on the 
Transportation-Treasury bill to be filed in the House and Senate. 
Instead, what has happened has been an unpardonable effort by the Bush 
White House to dismantle this agreement as it pertains to its beloved 
``competitive sourcing'' initiative.
  Why did the administration not like this agreement? Because they do 
not care to have to demonstrate to the taxpayers that any real dollar 
savings will accrue to the taxpayer when they contract out Federal 
jobs; they do not want Federal employees to have the opportunity to 
appeal a decision that was made in error; and they do not want a 
consistent and fair policy for all Federal agencies in this area.
  Believe it or not, the Bush administration complained about 
provisions in the Transportation/Treasury conference agreement that 
were identical to provisions that President Bush had already signed 
into law on the Department of Defense Appropriations Act and the 
Department of Interior Appropriations Act. When one now reviews the 
Omnibus Appropriations bill, it is clear that the Bush administration 
has succeeded in neutering the original conference agreement in this 
area. Never mind that we met in full and open conference and agreed to 
a meaningful set of safeguards. Never mind that all the members of the 
conference committee signed on to that agreement--Democrats and 
Republicans alike. This White House would have none of it. So, working 
through the offices of the House and Senate Republican leadership, the 
White House has succeeded in undermining the provisions of the original 
conference agreement to the point of making them largely hollow. The 
Bush administration has made a sham of our Federal procurement process 
and a sham of the appropriations process. So, on the Transportation 
Appropriations bill, once again, the President says it is my way or the 
highway.
  Finally, there is the matter of the across the board cuts. The 
President set an arbitrary topline for discretionary spending of $786 
billion. In the President's view, we can afford $1.7 trillion dollars 
of tax cuts. When it comes to the Medicare bill, we can afford $12 
billion for subsidies for private insurance companies. When it comes to 
the Energy bill, we can afford over $25 billion of tax cuts and $5 
billion of mandatory spending for big energy corporations. But when it 
comes to discretionary programs that help average Americans, the 
President insists on cuts. A cut of 0.59 percent would reduce funding 
for No Child Left Behind programs by over $73 million, resulting in 
24,000 fewer kids being served by Title I. Overall, the Title I 
Education for the Disadvantaged program would be $6 billion below the 
level authorized by the No Child Left Behind Act that the President 
signed in January of 2002. Another promise unfulfilled.
  The across-the-board cut would reduce Head Start funding by $40 
million, resulting in 5,500 fewer kids attending Head Start. Veterans 
Medical Care funding would be cut by $159 million, resulting in 26,500 
fewer veterans receiving medical care or 198,000 veterans not getting 
the drugs they need.
  Funding for highway construction would be cut by over $170 million. 
Well, for this President, it is my way or the highway, but fewer 
Americans will be building highways next year.
  Chairman Stevens and I tried very hard to produce thirteen bills to 
send to the President. I commend him for his effort to do so. But, the 
process was kidnapped by the White House and the leadership. Instead of 
sending thirteen fiscally responsible appropriations bills to the 
President, the House is filing a turkey of a conference report. That is 
no way to govern. That is no way to serve the American people.
  I wish all Senators a happy Thanksgiving and a happy Christmas. I 
hope they stay safe for the holidays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.
  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, no one deserves that holiday more than 
Senator Byrd who constantly reminds us of what this wonderful, 
interesting discussion is all about; that is, stand up for the 
Constitution, and stand up for the people we represent. To Senator Byrd 
and his wonderful wife, we wish an especially warm and cheerful 
holiday.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I thank again the Senator.

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