[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 163 (Saturday, December 17, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H12141-H12142]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1900
          FURTHER CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS, FISCAL YEAR 2006

  Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and 
pass the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 75) making further continuing 
appropriations for the fiscal year 2006, and for other purposes, as 
amended.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                              H.J. Res. 75

       Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
     United States of America in Congress assembled, That Public 
     Law 109-77 is further amended by striking the date specified 
     in section 106(3) and inserting the following: ``December 31, 
     2005''.
       Sec. 2. Section 114(b) of Public Law 109-77 is amended by 
     striking ``and December 1, 2005,'' and inserting ``December 
     1, 2005, and January 1, 2006''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. LaHood). Pursuant to the rule, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Lewis) and the gentleman from Wisconsin 
(Mr. Obey) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California.
  Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I 
may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I am bringing to the House a continuing resolution for 
fiscal year 2006. This CR runs through December 31. It is clean without 
exception. This CR will fund agencies in our last two remaining bills, 
the Labor-HHS and Defense bills, at the lowest level possible.
  When we passed the last CR, my hope was that it would bring a strong 
motivation for Congress to complete its work in regular order. I want 
the body to know that the Committee on Appropriations has been strongly 
committed to bringing to this floor individual conference reports for 
each and every bill. The committee does not support an omnibus in any 
form and has done everything in its power to ensure that that did not 
happen.
  The Appropriations Committee passed each bill of the 11 subcommittee 
bills off the House floor by June 30, the earliest that has been done 
in some 18 years. The Appropriations Committee has remained committed 
to moving these bills individually and within the framework of the 
budget resolution.
  Mr. Speaker, the Appropriations Committee has kept its word. I am 
convinced that moving bills individually is the only way to get us back 
to regular order. Lacking regular order, there is a tendency for the 
remaining bills to become ``Christmas trees,'' if you will,

[[Page H12142]]

and for spending to grow out of control. In my view, that is simply not 
acceptable. I hope that, next year, we do not find ourselves in the 
position we are in today.
  We are presently attempting to work with the Senate to finish a 
disaster assistance package that would be fully offset. It may include 
some avian flu preparedness money. Some have suggested that legislative 
language related to ANWR be included as well. This language has the 
potential, in my judgment, to sink the entire package once it reaches 
the Senate.
  The underlying bill, the DOD appropriations bill, is the most 
important of our annual appropriations bills for it funds our national 
security. Agreements have been reached on all major issues in the DOD 
portion of the bill. Frankly, we could have passed this bill weeks ago. 
We are at war, we have troops in harm's way, and we still have not 
passed this critical legislation. There are funds in this bill to 
provide body armor for our troops, up-armored Humvees and a military 
pay raise. Failure to enact this bill in a timely fashion is a 
disservice to our men and women in uniform.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this CR and would like 
to close my remarks by wishing all my friends on both sides of the 
aisle a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. It is great to be with 
you.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 8 minutes.
  Mr. Speaker, I want Members of the House, at least those who are 
around, to understand what the controversy has been with respect to 
this continuing resolution today. Let me back up even further.
  As the gentleman has indicated, the House Appropriations Committee 
was able to pass every bill through the House before we left for the 
August recess. Despite that fact, for a variety of reasons, most of 
which have nothing to do with the Appropriations Committee, the fact is 
that, today, we are 2 months into the fiscal year and the Department of 
Defense and the Departments of Labor, Health, Education and Social 
Services still have not received their funding for the year under a 
regular appropriation bill. That means that about 65 percent of the 
discretionary spending in the budget still has not been tied down for 
the coming year.
  That is not just a problem in Washington. It means that local people 
cannot plan. It means that school boards cannot plan. It means that the 
Pentagon cannot plan. And it discombobulates everybody. This is not the 
first time it has happened, but it is certainly one of the most 
troubling episodes that we have had in a long time.
  I think we are here with so little of this work finished because I 
really do believe that the leadership of the House has tried to impose 
an agenda on the House and on the Senate which is so extreme that even 
members of their own majority party have rebelled. Example: We take a 
look at what happened on the PATRIOT Act. Example: We take a look at 
the inability to pass the labor health bill, first in the House and now 
in the Senate. It seems to me that a little more flexibility on the 
part of the House leadership could have resolved a lot of those 
problems.
  Anyway, to bring us up to date, 10 minutes before the House opened 
today, we were informed on this side of the aisle that the continuing 
resolution to keep the government functioning for these agencies who 
have not yet received their funding, we received notice that a decision 
had been made to change the effective date of the continuing 
resolution, which meant that it would be extended through February 15 
rather than simply to the end of the year.
  It is one thing to provide a short extension so that the President 
has the ability to review legislation passed by the Congress before he 
signs it. It is quite another to try to leverage one group or another 
into a severe disadvantage with respect to some of this funding.
  The problem with extending the CR to February 15 is that it creates a 
number of anomalies in both funding for the Defense Department and in 
the funding for the social service agencies which I do not think this 
Congress wants to be responsible for.
  The problem with allowing the Pentagon, for instance, to continue on 
a CR, which is what would happen, the problem is that, at the levels 
under this CR, the military would be expected to run out of money for 
Iraq operations in January. That could create some significant problems 
for them. In addition, Pentagon contracts could be significantly 
delayed. Now, that could be overcome if we do manage to pass the 
Defense Appropriations Bill, and I hope we do, but we still would have 
a major problem with funding in the Labor-Health-Education bill.
  Example: Everybody knows that, just a few days ago, the majority 
party restored funding to Rural Health Outreach Grants in order to try 
to overcome their inability to pass the Labor-Health bill earlier in 
the week. Guess what? The CR before us today takes out that additional 
money for Rural Health Outreach Grants, and it again returns us to a 
funding level which is 73 percent below last year. I do not think 
people want to do that, but that is the result of the continuing 
resolution.
  The Community Services Block Grant Program, under the funding level 
in this CR, that program is cut in half from last year. The Low Income 
Heating Assistance Program, we had all kinds of people talking about 
adding money for that program, and yet under the funding level in this 
CR, LIHEAP is cut by $176 million. Under No Child Left Behind, under 
the funding level in this resolution, No Child Left Behind programs 
would be cut more than $1.1 billion below last year's level.
  We have heard a lot of fulminating on both sides of the aisle about 
IDEA, about special education. Guess what? The funding level for this 
continuing resolution would freeze IDEA grants.
  The International Labor Affairs Bureau, which protects American 
workers and wages through its efforts to eradicate child labor around 
the world, would be cut by 87 percent under the funding level in this 
continuing resolution. Unemployment help for people who are looking for 
jobs would be cut by $157 million under this continuing resolution 
level.
  Now, it is one thing to say, all right, we will let that go for a 
week because it simply is a short-term convenience to the President. It 
is quite another thing to say that we are going to hold those programs 
to that level of funding through February 15. When you do that, you 
ruin some of those programs and you make miserable the lives of a lot 
of people who depend on those programs, which is why we objected on 
this side of the aisle.
  Now that the majority party has returned to the original 
understanding that the CR will extend only for a week, time for us to 
get our work done; now that we are in a position where we are not going 
to be able to conveniently take a vacation until February 15 while 
these other programs suffer, I am perfectly happy to withdraw my 
objection.
  So I congratulate the gentleman for talking to whoever he had to talk 
to in order to bring them to their senses.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my 
time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Lewis) that the House suspend the rules 
and pass the joint resolution, H.J. Res. 75, as amended.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor 
thereof) the rules were suspended and the joint resolution, as amended, 
was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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