[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 129 (Wednesday, November 15, 2006)]
[House]
[Pages H8653-H8654]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          FURTHER CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS, FISCAL YEAR 2007

  Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and 
pass the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 100) making further continuing 
appropriations for the fiscal year 2007, and for other purposes.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                             H.J. Res. 100

       Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
     United States of America in Congress assembled, That the 
     Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2007 (Public Law 109-
     289, division B) is amended by striking the date specified in 
     section 106(3) and inserting ``December 8, 2006''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. 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. I appreciate the recognition, Mr. Speaker. I 
don't anticipate I will use the entire 20 minutes, but we will see how 
we proceed here.
  Mr. Speaker, I bring before the House a continuing resolution for 
fiscal year 2007. This CR runs through December 8. It is clean without 
exception. This CR will fund the agencies and the nine remaining bills 
awaiting conference at the lower rate of the House-passed, Senate-
passed or current fiscal year 2006 level.
  When we passed the last CR, my hope was that it would provide a 
strong motivation for Congress to complete its work in regular order. I 
remain hopeful that our colleagues in the Senate will complete their 
work on the floor so that we can move the remaining individual 
conference reports before the end of our legislative session.
  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.
  This committee does not support an omnibus in any form and has done 
everything in its power to ensure that that does not happen. The 
Appropriations Committee passed each bill of the 11 subcommittee bills 
out of the full committee by June 30, and with the exception of the 
Labor-HHS bill, all of those bills were off the floor by the Fourth of 
July break.
  The Appropriations Committee has remained committed to moving these 
bills individually and within the framework of the budget resolution. 
My colleagues, the Appropriations Committee has kept its word. I am 
convinced that moving bills individually is the only way for us to get 
back to regular order.
  Lacking regular order, there is a tendency for the remaining bills to 
become Christmas trees and for spending to grow out of control. In my 
view, that is simply not acceptable.
  I urge my colleagues to support this CR, and would like to close my 
remarks by wishing all of my friends, as we go out of town, a happy 
Thanksgiving.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

[[Page H8654]]

  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 5 minutes.
  Mr. Speaker, I think it is important for us to understand where we 
stand at this point. At this point, we have completed the Defense bill 
and the Homeland Security bill, but we still at this point have not 
seen the Congress complete action on a single domestic appropriation 
bill.
  So what we are facing is the need within the next 2 weeks, in my 
view, to try to finish our work, and I think we have a responsibility 
to do so. The Congress left town for almost 6 weeks for the election. 
Now because of that long period of time, we face the fact that we still 
have a huge amount of appropriations work to do.
  The House produced final action on every single one of the 
appropriation bills except the Labor-HHS, and the Senate is in the 
process, I hope, of moving those bills forward. The Senate passed the 
Military Construction bill yesterday. It is my understanding that they 
are taking up the Agriculture bill this week and will also perhaps take 
up the Energy and Water bill. I hope that is the case. I agree with the 
gentleman that I would much prefer to see these bills handled in 
regular order, one by one, on a separate basis.
  Having said that, my primary purpose is to see to it that they move, 
and I care less about how they move than whether they move, and I think 
most American citizens feel the same way. I think we have a duty to 
finish action on all of these bills, and I think it would be sad, 
indeed, if we were to adjourn this Congress with local units of 
government, local school boards, local program managers and State 
program managers not having any idea what the final resolution of these 
bills will be.
  So while I certainly agree with the gentleman that it is preferable 
to move individual bills, I am open to any suggestion procedurally in 
order to finish that work. We have cooperated on the minority side of 
the aisle.
  We have cooperated procedurally with the majority on every single 
appropriation bill, even though we have not agreed with the contents on 
some of those bills. I am willing to entertain procedural compromises. 
I am willing to entertain substantive compromises. But we need to try 
to move all of these bills by whatever method makes it possible to do 
so.
  I would simply note, there is one bill that remains in the House for 
us to act on, and I am perfectly willing to try to work out additional 
compromises on that bill if that will help the bill to move. I don't 
like the idea that the Senate might wind up moving first on that bill, 
but even then, I think our primary obligation is to get this work done.
  So I would urge the leadership and I would urge the gentleman and 
anyone else interested to please recognize that it would be 
irresponsible for this Congress not to finish its work. I would like to 
see a more productive closing to this session of Congress than has 
often been the case, and I am perfectly willing to work with anybody on 
any day in any way in order to get that done.
  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. 100.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds of those voting having 
responded in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and the joint 
resolution was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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