[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 153 (Thursday, November 17, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H10508-H10512]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.J. RES. 72, FURTHER CONTINUING
APPROPRIATIONS, FISCAL YEAR 2006
Mr. PUTNAM. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I
call up House Resolution 558 and ask for its immediate consideration.
The Clerk read the resolution, as follows:
H. Res. 558
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. 72)
making further continuing appropriations for the fiscal year
2006, and for other purposes. The joint resolution shall be
considered as read. The previous question shall be considered
as ordered on the joint resolution
[[Page H10509]]
to final passage without intervening motion except: (1) one
hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chairman
and ranking minority member of the Committee on
Appropriations; and (2) one motion to recommit.
Sec. 2. House Resolution 542 is laid on the table.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Petri). The gentleman from Florida (Mr.
Putnam) is recognized for 1 hour.
Mr. PUTNAM. Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the
customary 30 minutes to my neighbor and friend, the gentleman from
Florida (Mr. Hastings), 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. PUTNAM asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. PUTNAM. Mr. Speaker, House Resolution 558 is a rule that provides
for consideration of House Joint Resolution 72, making further
continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2006. As we approach the end
of the week and the time that we will be taking in our districts to
celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday, this particular rule and the CR
probably are among the least controversial things that the gentleman
from Florida and I will discuss today. I look forward to an abbreviated
debate on this.
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 one motion
to recommit.
I want to commend Chairman Lewis, Ranking Member Obey, and the entire
Appropriations Committee in the House for the determined effort this
year to avoid an omnibus spending bill. This is something that
unfortunately has become a routine part of our end-of-the-year
appropriations process and Chairman Lewis under tremendous leadership
with a great committee behind him has managed to avoid that this year,
in fact, setting almost a record by completing all of the House's work
on the appropriations process before July 4.
{time} 1030
The committee has practiced due diligence and is working to pass each
of these bills individually rather than having them attached as a train
at the end of the year. This continuing resolution is necessary because
our friends on the other side of the Rotunda are a little bit further
behind in their appropriations process and we are working through the
conference report stage.
This CR will allow the appropriators to continue that conferencing
work to ensure that we have a clean appropriations process where bills
are moving individually in the regular order.
Today we are considering the Labor, Health and Human Services and
Education Appropriations Bill which leaves just three outstanding
appropriations conference reports. The underlying resolution permits
Congress to finish its work and provide the President adequate time to
review the measures before signing them into law. H.J. Res. 72 simply
extends the previous continuing resolution through December 17.
In fact, Mr. Speaker, it is a one sentence change, only shifting the
date to December 17 for the continuing operations for the government.
The CR is a clean continuation of H.J. Res. 68, which passed the
House in September by a vote of 348-65, and which funded programs and
activities at the lowest of the House-passed level, the Senate-passed
level or the fiscal year 2005 current rate and included language
prohibiting agencies from resuming or initiating programs for
procurement not funded in FY 2005 and prohibited agencies from awarding
new grants and other forms of assistance during the period of
continuing resolution.
Throughout the appropriations process, the appropriators have
demonstrated their commitment to fiscal responsibility by working
within the framework we established in the budget resolution earlier
this year. Again, I want to express my gratitude to the gentleman from
California (Chairman Lewis), the ranking member, the gentleman from
Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) and the entire committee and staff of the
Appropriations Committee for their hard work this year.
I urge Members to support the rules and the underlying continuing
resolution so we can finish the appropriations process in regular order
and continue on our way toward responsibly funding the needs of
America.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I
may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Florida (Mr. Putnam) for yielding
me time. I also thank him for bringing the real Florida orange juice to
the 7 a.m. rules meeting this morning.
I oppose this closed rule, Mr. Speaker, and the underlying
legislation. Mr. Speaker, I wondered to myself earlier this morning as
the Rules Committee majority members passed yet another closed rule
which stifles debate and shuts off meaningful contributions from
Members of this Chamber.
What is the problem? Congress has only had since January 3 of this
year to complete work on the 12 annual appropriations bills, the so-
called ``must pass bills'' that Congress works on every year.
In case anyone is unclear, so far the President has signed only five
of the 12 appropriations bills that must pass and become law before
September 30. Defense appropriations? Not done. Military quality of
life and Veterans Affairs? Not done. Transportation, Treasury, HUD? Not
done. Of course, the bill which funds this very institution, the
legislative branch appropriations legislation, well, we did that to
protect our branch.
And the sad part? No one is to blame but the party in control. It is
an irrefutable fact, the last time that there was sole Democratic
control of Congress and the White House, all 13 appropriations bills
were passed by September 30. We had a balanced budget. And oh, yes,
budget surpluses as far as the eye at that time could see.
My, how times have changed. Now we have debt as far as the eye can
see and disdain from much of the rest of the world. The people here are
the modern day incarnations of Nero. The majority fiddles while the
Nation burns.
More than 45 days have passed since Congress passed its last
continuing resolution, 48 to be exact; and in that time, Republicans
have managed to pass a measly three of the ten outstanding
appropriations bills at the time of the last continuing resolution. In
baseball, their batting average would be pretty good. But in the real
world where salaries and promotion are based on accomplishments and
contributions, getting done 30 percent of what you are supposed to get
done is absolutely abysmal. In any other job in America, 30 percent
would get you fired. It should here too, Mr. Speaker, and I hope
America is paying attention.
So I ask, what in the world have the majority Members been doing over
the last month and a half that they cannot get these constitutionally-
mandated appropriations bills done on time?
We know that they have not dealt with FEMA. I have been trying to get
them to deal with FEMA since the agency messed up Florida recovery
efforts in the year 2004. And now look at where their neglect got us.
Republicans have not dealt with the national security leaks in the Bush
White House. They have not dealt with increasing access to health care
or investing in affordable housing for low and moderate incomes. They
have not dealt with unemployment in this Nation.
In fact, this morning the chairman of the Rules Committee said to us
that we have ``full employment'' in this Nation. He identifies that as
6 percent. I guess there is no one looking for a job in San Dimas where
he is from or the greater Los Angeles area.
So forgive me, Mr. Speaker, if I feel it unnecessary to grant
Republicans another 30 days to fix a problem that they, one, created on
their own, and two, have shown zero ability that they are capable of
leading our country in a responsibly fiscal manner.
The problem is not Hurricanes Katrina or Wilma or other disasters. It
is not even the failing war in Iraq. The problem Republicans have is
their beloved tax cuts that 95 percent of the people in this country
barely benefit from. Their problem is themselves and their failed
fiscal policies.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
[[Page H10510]]
Mr. PUTNAM. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Perhaps I misspoke earlier saying that this would be the least
controversial item we would deal with this morning. I recognize that we
all had to get up early to be at Rules this morning, and apparently it
is affecting some of our temperaments.
I would just point out that we finished all of the House's work, and
I gave equal credit to both our chairman, the gentleman from California
(Mr. Lewis) and the rest of his committee and the ranking member, the
gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey), who finished all of our work by
July 4, all of our appropriations processes in regular order, in an
individual manner instead of having to bundle them up into a train at
the end of the legislative season.
To date, we have finished seven of those 11 appropriations bills. We
will do the eighth in a couple of hours here on this floor today, which
leaves three remaining waiting to be returned from their conference
work with the Senate.
So it is often said at times in the House that your opposition is the
other party, but your enemy is the other Chamber. And when it comes to
the enemy of time and being at the end of the legislative calendar,
that, unfortunately, is the case with the appropriations process that
we are waiting on regular order, the conference committees with the
House and the Senate to finish their work on those three remaining
bills.
With respect to the gentleman's concerns about a closed rule, this is
a continuing resolution that is one sentence long. It funds the
operations of government from now until December 17. The stifling of
debate is nonexistent. There are no speakers on either side for this.
The fact that it is a closed rule indicates that there is really no
other option about how to approach a continuing resolution other than
should it be December 16 instead of December 17?
Would the gentleman have the CR expire on Thanksgiving Day when no
one will be in this Chamber to act to fund the operations of the
government so that national parks remain open and Social Security
checks continue to go out?
What would the amendments be that the gentleman would offer if
December 17 is an inadequate solution to funding the operations of
government until we finish the three remaining conference reports on
appropriations?
To say that that is stifling democracy is nothing more than
hyperbole.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I
may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I would inform my good friend from Florida that getting
up for a 7 a.m. Rules Committee does not alter my temperament. The
suggestion that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle should
have completed their work by September 30 is mandated by our
responsibilities here in the House of Representatives. And I find it
disingenuous to speak of the other body, which I heartily endorse what
my colleague said with reference to the gentleman from California (Mr.
Lewis) in this House of Representatives but the other body is
controlled by the majority. The White House is controlled by the
majority. And it is y'all that have it all. And so under the
circumstances, it is your responsibility to have done it by September
30.
To answer the gentleman, what we would have done perhaps if we did
not go home for Thanksgiving and take Thanksgiving dinner up here. The
gentleman asks for another date or debate about this continuing
resolution, doubtless what we would have been able to do is stay here
and that may have lit a fire under some of the people in the other body
who need to get their work done.
We have all sorts of problems in this Nation and there is no reason
for us not to complete our work.
Mr. PUTNAM. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. I yield to the gentleman from Florida.
Mr. PUTNAM. Just briefly, I respect the gentleman's observation that
the majority party in the Senate is the party that I share, the
Republican party, but I learned a long time ago to stop trying to
answer for that Chamber over there. That is a tough body to figure out.
The gentleman knows as well as I do that they tend to bog down in the
oratory and slow down on the action.
Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the
gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio.)
Mr. PUTNAM. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from
Oregon (Mr. DeFazio).
Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlemen for yielding me time.
Despite what the Member from Florida said, there are some who would
like to speak to this issue. He said what does 30 days matter? Should
it be 29?
Guess what? The Congress assembled on behalf of the American people,
and this administration will borrow $1.3 billion a day every day for
those 30 days. We will be $39 billion deeper in debt a month from
today.
What would we do if we had an open rule? Well, perhaps we could make
some real cuts in wasteful programs in the budget, instead of attacking
the vulnerable, the students, kids getting lunches at school. They are
just eating too much. Kids in foster care, long term care for seniors.
Maybe we could go where the real money is. They asked Willie Sutton,
Why did you rob banks? Because that is where the money is.
The Republicans do not want to go where the money is because that is
where the special interests are, the people who fund their campaign
machine to keep them in the majority, to keep them borrowing $1.3
billion a day, indebting the American people as far as the eye can see.
What cuts might we have to make? Well, let us see. The President has
this bizarre idea that we should borrow a trillion dollars, one
thousand billion dollars to go to Mars while we cannot meet the needs
of people here on Earth, here in the United States of America. We do
not have money for levees, jetties. We do not have money for the school
lunch program. We do not have money for student loans, but we should
borrow a trillion dollars to go to Mars. But before that, let us borrow
$100 billion to go back to the moon to get some more dust. Great idea.
No, personally, I would like to have an up or down vote on borrowing
$100 billion to go back to the moon.
A few other things, let us revisit Star Wars. The general in charge
of Star Wars gave us some very, very encouraging news. He said the
system to protect us against missiles that will never be fired against
the United States because we could track them back and retaliate, they
will smuggle a bomb in if they want to attack us. But he said it has a
better than zero chance of working, better than zero after $100 billion
and abrogating the anti-missile treaty.
{time} 1045
Whoa, that is good. Well, maybe we could visit that issue in an open
rule.
How about corporate farm subsidies? The American people are going to
borrow around $25 billion this year to give subsidies for surplus crops
being grown by corporate farmers and others. Well, maybe we could visit
that issue on the floor. No, they would not want to touch that. There
is a lot of money coming in there.
How about the $19 billion in the energy bill in subsidies to the oil
industry in the hope that they will take money, borrowed by the
taxpayers, given to them to go out and explore? Of course, those same
oil company execs, of course they were not under oath, I have got to
admit that, said that that money, the head of Exxon said it is nothing,
it is chump change, and it has no effect on our operations. So maybe we
could take back that $19 billion and spend it on lunch for hungry kids
or maybe we could put the money back into the student loan program that
you want to cut out in the reconciliation bill.
Then we have a few tax giveaways out there, offshore companies like
Accenture, largest homeland security contractor in the history of the
United States, $10 billion, who has moved their headquarters to the
Bahamas so they will not pay any taxes in the United States of America,
but they are going to defend us against foreign enemies, but they just
do not want to pay any taxes here. I would like to be defended against
them and those giveaways.
Mr. PUTNAM. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
Mr. DeFAZIO. I yield to the gentleman from Florida.
[[Page H10511]]
Mr. PUTNAM. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman clearly has come to the floor
a little bit early, because all of these things are going to be
eligible for debate here in another several hours when we move forward
on our deficit reduction package, and the gentleman will have an
opportunity to exercise through his vote that savings process, that
deficit reduction process.
But I am just curious, in all the gentleman's rhetoric, what would
you do differently about the continuing resolution that funds
government through December 17 until we finish our regular
appropriations process?
Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I would schedule some
up-or-down votes on these sorts of major cuts in a much expanded
reconciliation under an open rule.
Mr. PUTNAM. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would further yield, does
the gentleman object to us funding the government through December 17?
Mr. DeFAZIO. I object to borrowing $1.3 billion a day between now and
then without any attempt at fiscal restraint.
Mr. PUTNAM. Would the gentleman shut down the government to prevent
that from occurring?
Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, that was the ploy of your party. That is
not mine, but I would take the time to keep Congress here.
What we are talking about is Congress going on vacation, Congress
going away for 2 weeks, have Thanksgiving at home, while we are taking
food out of the mouths of kids and depriving students of loans through
the reconciliation bill, borrowing $1.3 billion a day on behalf of the
American taxpayers and getting them by another $39 billion. That is
what we are talking about.
On the reconciliation vote, if you would bring the reconciliation
bill up as an open rule, you know that is a closed rule, too. You are
negotiating cuts only with your side of the aisle. You do not intend to
get a single Democratic vote; and the biggest cut in the bill is
student loans, the party of opportunity. The second biggest cut in the
bill is Medicaid; dump those problems on the States and deprive people
of needed health care. Then, of course, we have the cuts in food
security and other things in that bill.
But we are not going to be allowed to offer amendments to cut Star
Wars, the return to the Moon for $100 billion, corporate farm
subsidies, tax giveaways. We will not be allowed to offer any
amendments during the consideration of that bill. I would stay here
through next week and have debate day after day and go through a series
of amendments up or down on bringing some fiscal responsibility to this
Congress.
Mr. PUTNAM. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
The gentleman is passionate about his concern for the fiscal well-
being, but he is clearly misdirected in the sense that he will have an
opportunity to vote on a number of these deficit reduction measures, a
number of these savings, a number of these government reform
mechanisms; and he will have the opportunity to present all of the
things that he talked about in his own recommittal motion, which is a
right that has been granted to the minority party.
So all of the things that he talked about, all of the things that he
objects to, the sound agricultural policy that guarantees that we
continue to have the safest, cheapest food supply in the world, if you
want to cut those things, you can put it in your program. If you do not
like the fact that we are taking Pell grants up, you could object to
that through your recommittal motion.
The point is that we are here today debating the rule on the
continuing resolution of the government because we have three regular
order appropriations bills yet to move, because I believe, to our
credit and to this Chamber's credit, to the credit of the entire House,
we are not moving a last minute omnibus choo-choo train that all of us
have to go home and then discover something in that that we are not
real terribly proud of. I think it is a credit to the appropriators on
both sides of the aisle and a credit, frankly, to both Chambers, and as
the gentleman from Florida has pointed out, under Republican
leadership, that are bringing us 11 individual appropriations bills
that can be voted on up or down.
You have an opportunity to make your position publicly known on each
of those bills, rather than having things stuffed into a last-minute
train, which all of us object to and which diminishes the status of the
House.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I
may consume.
I join the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio), my colleague, in
asserting that we should stay here and complete the task that is before
us.
I say to my very good friend from Florida that your and my chairman
of the Rules Committee speaking about closed rules in another time made
the following statement, that closed rules are anathema to democracy.
When you argue that we are going to have time to do this, when we
take the budget deficit matter up, what you are talking about is 1 hour
on the rule, 1 hour on general debate, you say 2 hours, I will accept
that, on general debate, 10 minutes in the motion to recommit, and that
then is what 435 Members and five delegates have that they can deal
with in terms of time.
The problems pointed out by my friend from Oregon are significant,
and the things that you have heard me say in the Rules Committee, the
things that disturb me and distress me most are these things having to
do with education.
No one can tell me that they are not prepared to make the sacrifices
for our children to have afterschool programs; and yet, what we are
going to find in that program are substantial cuts. There are no
afterschool programs in the counties that I represent.
In Medicaid, it is no secret what is about to happen. When we cut
Medicaid, any way you cut it, you can slice it, dice it any way you
want, States, get ready, because you are getting ready to have a
significant problem with tax increases at that level.
What part of national sacrifice do we not understand? What part of
closed rule that I heard so often in 1992 does the majority not
understand that that does not give the Members of this body the
opportunity to come forward with amendments that might make sense with
reference to fiscal responsibility here in the House of
Representatives?
Those are some of the issues.
Mr. Speaker, I have no additional speakers and I yield back the
balance of my time.
Mr. PUTNAM. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close, and we have kicked off quite a
debate here this morning. We know that it is going to be a long day as
we approach the debate over the Labor, Health and Human Services
appropriations bill, the ongoing debate over the continuing resolution
to fund our government, and later today the deficit reduction package,
which I dare say will not take food from any child in America's mouth,
despite the overheated rhetoric of the gentleman from Oregon,
respectfully the gentleman from Florida and a number of others on that
side of the aisle who it would appear from their media statements
discuss in the salons and parlors of the Beltway whether Republicans
hate children or old people more.
I dare say that as we bring up this Deficit Reduction Act, which
finally for the first time since 1997 puts us back on a serious track
to finding savings not just in the discretionary side of our spending
but in the mandatory side which makes up over half of Federal spending
today and which slows the rate of growth in government, again, one of
those Washington, D.C.-style cuts, where budgets grow 7 percent instead
of 7.3 percent or they grow 6 percent instead of 6.3 percent, and we
find $50 billion worth of savings in a $2.5 trillion per year budget.
So $50 billion in savings over 5 years in what would then be a $14
trillion pot. I think that almost any American would say I think that
my budget growing 7 percent instead of 7.3 percent is acceptable, and I
dare say to my friend from Florida, who represents, among other
counties, Palm Beach County, Florida, the home of Lake Worth Avenue
among other places. I think there are a number of counties that would
gladly trade their tax base for his, and I would also say that I
believe that somewhere in Palm Beach County there is an afterschool
program
[[Page H10512]]
of some shape or form. There must be an afterschool program somewhere
in all of Palm Beach County, Florida.
I believe that as we move through this debate it is important for us
to be responsible in our rhetoric and keep our eyes on the ball, which
is the looming fiscal crisis that is out there if Congress does not
have the courage to get its arms around mandatory spending, which is
consuming Federal spending, making up over 50 percent of it today and
two-thirds of Federal spending.
Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield just
for a quick correction?
Mr. PUTNAM. I yield to the gentleman from Florida.
Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, that is Worth Avenue in Palm
Beach, not West Palm Beach. Our colleague Mark Foley represents that
area, a Republican.
I represent Pahokee and Belle Glade, which are also in Palm Beach,
and you are talking about no tax base. I just want to have that
correction made.
Mr. PUTNAM. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, the gentleman referred
to the entire county, not his piece of the county, and I certainly am
well aware of Pahokee and Belle Glade and the challenges that they have
gone through.
But I believe somewhere in your county you have an afterschool
program.
Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. In private schools.
Mr. PUTNAM. 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. Petri). The question is on the
resolution.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the ayes appeared to have it.
Mr. PUTNAM. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further
proceedings on this question will be postponed.
____________________