[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 2690]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                IN SUPPORT OF REPEALING HOUSE RULE XXIII

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Regula). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 19, 1999, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Stearns) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, today I will be introducing legislation to 
require a separate vote before we raise the debt ceiling.
  A lot of my colleagues will ask, why is this legislation necessary? 
Because often we allow the practice of raising the debt ceiling, the 
debt limit, to continue without a recorded vote. It is hidden within 
the budget resolution and passes without notice and, of course, without 
a vote.
  Initially, this rule was added in the 96th Congress by public law and 
was originally applicable to concurrent resolutions on the budget for 
fiscal years beginning on or after October 1, 1980.
  The rule was amended in the 98th Congress to reflect the enactment 
into law of a new permanent rather than temporary debt limit. The rule 
ties a passage of a concurrent budget resolution to an increase or a 
decrease in the limit of the public debt.
  Legislation to repeal Rule XXIII would simply force Congress to vote 
separately on any increase in the public debt limit. Repealing this 
rule would simply force a floor vote on an increase or a decrease in 
the public debt; and this is a positive move, I think, for all of 
Americans.
  Again I pose the question: Why is this so important we have such a 
vote? If we do not pass and repeal this Rule XXIII, we will continue to 
raise the debt limit with no type of accountability.
  I would like to share with my colleagues some statistics that I think 
will help them to understand the relevance of what I am talking about.
  In 1994, the debt ceiling of the United States Treasury was about $49 
billion, and we had a population then of about 132 million people. That 
is roughly about $370 per person. Our population today is about 276 
million people, and our debt now is approaching $6 trillion. That is 
about $22,450 per person.
  In the 58 years since 1940, the U.S. population has doubled. Yet the 
debt ceiling has risen to about 121 times its 1940 level.
  Now, when we start to talk about almost $6 trillion, that kind of 
figure is beyond the understanding of most of us. If we put it in 
inches, it is the distance from the earth to the sun. In terms of the 
population of all of the earth, it is about $1,000 for every person. It 
is a huge amount of money.
  Mr. Speaker, as my colleagues know, House Rule XXIII stipulates, 
``upon the adoption by Congress of any concurrent resolution, the 
enrolling clerk of the House of Representatives shall prepare an 
engrossment of a joint resolution, increasing or decreasing the 
statutory limit on the public debt.''
  In other words, simply passing a budget subsequently raises the 
public debt limit. There are no votes on the matter, no floor debates, 
no nothing. Rule XXIII simply states that a vote for the budget ``shall 
be deemed to have been a vote in favor of'' raising the public debt 
limit.
  It is way too easy here today and far too painless for us on the 
House floor to raise this public debt. It should not be easy, and it 
should not be painless, and we should have full debate. In fact, it 
should be very difficult; and, at the very least, it should be a 
publicly debated matter with a record vote.
  So, Mr. Speaker, to remedy this situation I have this legislation 
which I will be dropping this morning; and I urge all of my colleagues 
to support it and just to call my office if they would like to be a 
cosponsor.

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