[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 17]
[House]
[Page 22503]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          LAME DUCK CONGRESS WADDLES TO AN IRRESPONSIBLE CLOSE

  (Mr. PALLONE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, last month Americans went to the voting 
booth to voice their displeasure with the most do-nothing Congress in 
our Nation's history. It was bad enough the Republican Congress 
rejected our efforts to increase the minimum wage, to prevent Big Oil 
from price-gouging the American consumer, and to prevent seniors from 
falling into the prescription drug doughnut hole.
  But now the most do-nothing Congress of all time prepares to leave 
Washington without passing a budget for the current fiscal year. Under 
the headline, ``The lame duck Congress waddles to an irresponsible 
close,'' the Washington Post yesterday wrote, and I quote, ``We 
understand the political temptation to do mischief by doing nothing, 
but this is a gross abdication of lawmakers' fundamental 
responsibilities. It creates enormous problems across the broad 
spectrum of Federal agencies which have no assurance about what their 
final spending allowances will be.''
  House Republicans refuse to do their job and have decided to throw 
their budget mess to the new Democratic Congress. Talk about being 
irresponsible.

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