[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.

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