[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 155 (Wednesday, December 1, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H7777-H7778]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
FURTHER CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS, FISCAL YEAR 2011
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to the rule, I call up the joint
resolution (H.J. Res. 101) making further continuing appropriations for
fiscal year 2011, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate
consideration.
The Clerk read the title of the joint resolution.
The text of the joint resolution is as follows:
H.J. Res. 101
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled, That the
Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011 (Public Law 111-242) is
amended by striking the date specified in section 106(3) and
inserting ``December 18, 2010''.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Larsen of Washington). Pursuant to House
Resolution 1741, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) and the
gentleman from California (Mr. Lewis) each will control 30 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Wisconsin.
General Leave
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks on
H.J. Res. 101.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Wisconsin?
There was no objection.
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 2 minutes.
Mr. Speaker, this legislation is one page long. It does only one
thing: It changes the date so we can keep the government running from
this Friday, December 3 to Saturday, December 18. Otherwise, the
government would shut down. For the 2 weeks we are extending the
current CR, it will provide us and the Senate time to consider the full
year CR and the nominees that the administration should be sending us
today.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I
might consume.
Mr. Speaker, by any definition, this year's appropriations process
has been a complete and utter failure. We are now 5 weeks past the
beginning of the new fiscal year and Congress has yet to enact a single
appropriations bill. Out of 12 total bills, two have passed the House,
while 10 bills were never even considered by the full committee.
Even more astonishing, Mr. Speaker, is this fact: During all of 2010,
the full appropriations committee met just once--in July--and that
meeting occurred almost a full year since the last time the committee
met--in July of 2009.
{time} 1310
This record is all the more striking when you consider the fact that
the House has spent week after week, month after month considering
hundreds of insignificant bills, while ignoring the substantive work
required of the Congress to pass a Federal budget.
Today, the House is considering a 2-week extension of the current
continuing resolution. Chairman Obey and the Democrat leadership are
hoping that 2 weeks will be enough time to muster enough Democratic
votes to pass a massive 12-bill package, loaded with earmarks, with a
price tag exceeding $1.1 trillion. If they succeed, House Democrats
will pass an omnibus without a single Republican vote.
Democratic staff in the House and the Senate began negotiations on
the omnibus spending bill after Members of Congress left Washington in
October. Realizing that these negotiations excluded input from the
elected Members of Congress, and recognizing the likelihood that these
negotiations would lead to yet another massive trillion-dollar
government spending bill, I directed my staff not to engage in these
negotiations. While Democratic staff was focused on additional ways to
spend money, Republican staffers on the committee were working to
identify spending cuts.
As I have made clear time and time again, I am strongly,
unequivocally opposed to any potential omnibus spending bill the
Democratic leadership may be planning to bring to the House floor
before the end of the year. Likewise, I remain adamantly opposed to
extending the CR for the balance of the fiscal year to current spending
levels, which are, frankly, too darn high. I am encouraging my
leadership and each of my colleagues who are concerned about excessive
spending to oppose any effort to pass an omnibus or extend the CR
beyond February.
Voters have made it abundantly clear that they want Congress to cut
spending, starting today. There is no better place to begin this
process than by returning to the U.S. Treasury unobligated funds from
the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, one of the most costly and
ineffective bills in modern history. For this very reason, I introduced
legislation on November 15 to immediately rescind billions of dollars
of unspent stimulus funding and immediately applying those dollars to
the deficit. I am hopeful that rescinding this funding will be among
the first orders of business in the 112th Congress.
This commitment to cut spending will also consist of rescinding
previously appropriated dollars passed under the current Democratic
majority as well as dramatically scaling back funding proposed by the
President in his final 2 years in office.
I believe we ought to extend the CR until February, allowing the
House Republicans the opportunity to begin putting our Nation's fiscal
house in order by completing the FY 11 appropriations bills at an FY
2008 level or below, and saving taxpayers at least $100 billion. It
would be the clearest signal the House could send to the American
people that we got the message and take seriously their commitment to
cutting spending.
Should the Democratic leadership muster the votes to pass an omnibus
in its last-gasp effort to spend yet another trillion-plus dollars,
every penny above and beyond the 2008 levels will be on the chopping
block come January. Or put another way, if House Democrats use their
last 4 weeks in power to spend another $1.1 trillion, House Republicans
will rescind every penny above and beyond the 2008 levels when the new
Congress convenes.
Mr. Speaker, I believe we should have shut down the government, but I
cannot and will not support this CR because it continues unsustainable
levels of spending established last year. At a
[[Page H7778]]
time of historic deficits, record debt, and 10 percent unemployment, I
believe we owe our constituents more than the status quo. Let's start
cutting spending, Mr. Speaker, today. I urge a ``no'' vote.
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to my colleague from
Kentucky (Mr. Rogers).
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Today's CR is nothing but a continuation of
the culture of overspending, persistence of a broken process, and a
refusal to make the tough decisions, end earmarks, and do the job we
were sent here to do. As a result, our Federal spending is off the
charts. We are staring at another trillion-dollar budget deficit. Debts
are stacking up over $13 trillion. Unemployment continues to hover
around 10 percent, and congressional approval by the public remains at
an all-time and dangerous low.
For the past 2 years, the administration has been given a free hand,
with an unlimited credit card. The results are mind-boggling: 27
percent in growth in nondefense discretionary spending since 2008. And
that's not including the bailouts and a failed stimulus package.
Meanwhile, the Appropriations Committee has not done its job. No
checks, no balances, no discipline, no bills.
What do we have to show for our work this year on the committee and
in the Congress? A 2-week extension of more of the same. A date change
is the sum total of the work of the Appropriations Committee.
Disappointing to say the least. I believe we can do much better by
severely cutting spending, conducting rigorous and thoughtful
oversight, changing the culture of appropriations, and performing
outreach inside and outside the Congress.
Fortunately, I believe wholesale change is on the way, Mr. Speaker.
We have got to cut discretionary spending and exert fiscal discipline
on fat agencies. We have got to stop the administration's regulatory
war on small businesses and working families and rein in the out-of-
control bureaucracies like the EPA. And we have got to start listening
to the American people and their views rather than building these bills
in the Speaker's office behind closed doors. Let's let the light shine
in and open up some closets around that stale office.
Mr. Speaker, I urge the House to reject this 2-week delay, cut
spending, return to regular order, and conduct our business out in the
open.
Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my
time.
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I made a mistake here today. I assumed that because the
election was over that we would have at least a temporary suspension of
election-year rhetoric. But evidently I was wrong. It's not the first
time, but nonetheless I had hoped it would be otherwise today.
Let me simply say that I will take a lot of lectures from a lot of
people on a lot of subjects, because I have made more than my share of
mistakes in the years that I have served in this place. But the one
thing that I will not take is lectures from the other side about fiscal
responsibility. I mean, these are the folks who managed to turn $6
trillion in expected surpluses when Bill Clinton left office into a $1
trillion deficit. These are the same folks who insisted on passing two
tax cuts primarily targeted at the wealthiest people in this country,
all paid for with borrowed money.
{time} 1320
These are the same folks that have insisted that we fight two wars on
borrowed money rather than paying the bills. And these are the same
folks who attacked President Obama for the so-called bailouts when, in
fact, the mother of all bailouts, TARP, was brought to this Congress by
the previous Republican administration.
While I don't like the way they implemented that bailout, I happen to
think that that administration did what was necessary under the
circumstances, circumstances created in large part by previous policies
that were pursued by the folks running Washington, D.C. I don't want to
go any further than that. I didn't intend to get into the political
side of the debate, but neither am I going to sit by and have these
comments go unanswered.
With that, I would simply say this, again, is a very simple
proposition. It extends the budget for 2 weeks at existing levels so
that the Congress can make an attempt to finish its work so that we do
not do what was done to us 4 years ago, because when we took over 4
years ago, we had to clean up all of the last year's fiscal mess before
we could turn to next year's problems.
I would think that it is worth trying to finish action on our budget
this year so that our friends, as they assume majority status in
January, can start with a clean slate and be looking forward rather
than backwards, and this resolution is an attempt to facilitate that. I
urge passage of it.
I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. All time for debate has expired.
Pursuant to House Resolution 1741, the joint resolution is considered
read and the previous question is ordered.
The question is on the engrossment and third reading of the joint
resolution.
The joint resolution was ordered to be engrossed and read a third
time, and was read the third time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the passage of the joint
resolution.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the ayes appeared to have it.
Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and
nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further
proceedings on this question will be postponed.
____________________