[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 20]
[Senate]
[Pages 28386-28387]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         APPROPRIATIONS PROCESS

  Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I am delighted to come to the floor 
today. I heard this morning the announcement by the Democratic leader, 
Mr. Reid, that we probably will not bring the remaining five 
appropriations bills to the floor of the Senate before the year is out. 
Quite frankly, when the Republicans or Democrats have been in charge 
lately, it seems we have gotten into this situation going well past the 
fiscal year without acting on all the appropriations acts.
  It seems to me as if, my ninth year in the Congress and my third year 
in the Senate, more often than not we end up with minibuses or 
omnibuses. We roll tremendous appropriations bills one into the other, 
pass them at the end of the night, and find out weeks later what is in 
them. That is not good regardless of your party, and it is certainly 
not good for the United States of America.
  I come to the floor this morning to talk about some suggestions that 
have been made by some very distinguished and learned Members of this 
body on both sides of the aisle about opening our appropriations 
process, diagnosing the problems with it, and fixing it statutorily.
  I particularly call the attention of the body to Senator Domenici 
from New Mexico, one of the longest serving Members of the Senate. He 
will be retiring at the end of next year. He has introduced 
consistently every year a biennial budget. The idea is that we 
appropriate in 2-year bites rather than a 1-year bite, and we do 
oversight in the second year.
  Think about this for a second. What if the Congress did 
appropriations bills

[[Page 28387]]

in odd-numbered years, meaning we spent the money in odd-numbered years 
and in even-numbered years, the same year we are up for reelection, we 
do oversight. So all of a sudden our debate and races are not about 
what we are going to spend but how our money is being spent. That is 
responsible, it is smart, and it makes sense.
  Those who object will jump up and say: Oh, well, then we will just 
have a lot of emergency appropriations bills. Give me a break. Have you 
seen how many emergencies we have done in the last 2 years? We have 
emergencies come up all the time. Of course, you are going to have 
those. The emergency that exists is not the fear of having an emergency 
but the fact that once again this year we have gone past the end of the 
fiscal year, and we are operating under a continuing resolution. The 
United States has an untold number of issues that must be dealt with, 
and we are on cruise control in terms of the appropriations of our 
country. It is not right.
  Now, I have voted for some appropriations bills, and I have voted 
against some appropriations bills. I am glad we have gotten seven done. 
But we have five out there that all of a sudden are probably going to 
get rolled in with about three or four others, get vetoed, and then get 
rolled into an omnibus. We will fly in here in the dead of night, have 
a document on our desk that is probably as thick as five or six 
concrete blocks stacked on top of one another, in very fine print, and 
we will be asked to cast a vote on how we are going to spend the money 
of the taxpayers of the United States. It is not right.
  We need to look at new and creative ways to run the Government of the 
United States and its fiscal affairs. I commend Senator Domenici's 
appropriations recommendation and the idea of the biannual budget, and 
I encourage this body to start looking at a constructive solution like 
that. Senator Voinovich, who ran the State of Ohio--he has been a 
Governor--and is as sound a fiscal person as you want to find in this 
Senate, pointed out as well yesterday that the whole situation is just 
broken. We have entitlements on cruise control, discretionary spending 
in a continuing resolution, and we in the Congress fight over little 
tiny parts of the appropriations process when we ought to be 
considering it in its totality. We should take each of the 12 budget 
units, bring them to the floor, debate them, pass them, and send them 
to the President. Do them responsibly, as we are expected to do.
  When the announcement was made that we are not going to get to five 
appropriations bills this year, there was also an announcement that we 
are going to have an Omnibus appropriations bill. We are going to roll 
all the bills into one, not debate them, not make decisions based on 
their soundness, and not even, for most of us, have a say in it; 
certainly not have a say during prime time or a say on the floor of the 
Senate.
  Mr. President, I come today to talk about responsibility on behalf of 
our body and responsibility on behalf of the people of the United 
States, and I urge the majority to join with us to seek out 
recommendations such as those of Senator Domenici, seek out the sound 
advice of Senator Voinovich, and let's get our fiscal affairs in order. 
If we don't, we are going to waste more and more tax dollars and we are 
going to have more and more programs that go without oversight and we 
are going to spend dollar after dollar after dollar on old problems 
while our new problems and new challenges go unmet. It is not right for 
me, it is not right for you, Mr. President, and, most importantly, it 
is not right for the people of the United States.
  I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, how much time remains on our side of 
the aisle on morning business?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. There are 14\1/2\ minutes remaining.
  Mr. BROWNBACK. I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________