[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 16 (Tuesday, February 10, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H398-H399]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1245
                         DEFICIT ACCOUNTABILITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Boozman). Pursuant to the order of the

[[Page H399]]

House of January 20, 2004, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Stearns) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, I would say to my colleague from Ohio that 
President Clinton of his party supported a lot of this free trade. In 
fact, President Clinton was very active in getting passed in previous 
Congresses many of these free trade agreements that the gentleman from 
Ohio is complaining about. So I think it is just a question of whether 
one is for free trade or not. I am for fair trade not free trade.
  But, Mr. Speaker, I am here to talk about a deficit that is 
continuing quite dramatically, and now all of us are faced with a tough 
task of balancing the budget the next 5 years, and the President is 
committed to that.
  One of the reasons this budget is in a deficit mode is because of the 
recession that President Bush inherited; also what happened on 9/11. It 
changed this country's perspective completely and, of course, with it 
our efforts to secure our homeland borders and security within our 
buildings. So, obviously, we have had to expend extra money to do that; 
and the President rightly did so and Congress agreed to reduce taxes so 
we could help the economy.
  Obviously, there is no quick fix for the deficit. However, we must 
act decisively today in the budget process so that we do not put undue 
burden on future generations.
  I believe that Members of Congress realize how accountability works. 
We want to support reduced spending around here, and that is why I am 
introducing a bill this day to underscore accountability that will 
connect all of us here in Congress with the rest of the country.
  Year in and year out, we all have to explain to our constituents why 
we automatically receive a pay raise regardless of the deficit that 
occurs here in Congress. So why not have a bill simply to say that no 
automatic pay adjustments will be made for Members of Congress in the 
year following a fiscal year in which there is a Federal budget 
deficit? Something very simple. My bill, the Deficit Accountability Act 
of 2004, basically says that, again, no automatic pay adjustments are 
made for us here in Congress unless we balance the budget.
  If this Congress can work together, I think we can control spending. 
We must lead by example, and I believe this simple measure could do 
just that. The bill would provide a real-world incentive for Members of 
Congress to curtail wasteful and abusive spending.
  So it is a good-faith measure, Mr. Speaker. It is in a small way just 
symbolic, but I think our constituents would appreciate that, and that 
is why I am offering this bill today.
  All of us have returned from our respective retreats, the Democrats 
and Republicans, and all of us, of course, are resolved to have a 
tougher stance on spending and try to balance the budget. There has 
been some talk again about having a line item veto. I would like to see 
that effort reenergized, reenacted; and I believe now is the time to 
support the shift in this fiscal environment towards a balanced budget.
  Momentum is building in this House to write a congressional budget 
resolution that would freeze outright nondefense, nonhomeland security 
appropriations. Furthermore, many Members have introduced legislation 
that seeks to make deep cuts in the discretionary spending of the 
various departments. These departments have lots of accountability 
problems. There is waste and fraud in some of these Departments. The 
President's budget proposal makes a strong effort to address these 
problems.
  Mr. Speaker, I just bring to my colleagues' attention a recent GAO 
report that showed that the collective departments, across the board 
every department in the budget reported a staggering $17.3 billion in 
unreconciled transactions in 2002. That is, to put it bluntly, we have 
lost $17 billion. It is unaccounted for. I know all Members will agree 
that these lost funds are staggering, and something must be done to get 
to the bottom of this, and obviously in this budget process we should 
do this.
  At this time, we clearly have an opportunity to curtail wasteful 
spending and at the same time support our President as he seeks to 
balance the budget in the next 5 years. I believe starting today this 
body can make a statement of how we want spending in this Congress to 
proceed and also how to pay ourselves in the event we have a deficit. 
Mr. Speaker, we must draw a line on spending, and hopefully we can now 
remember it is the American taxpayers who occupy the most prominent 
position at the negotiating table here in Washington.

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