Xavier Becerra

Mr. BECERRA

Mr. BECERRA. Mr. Speaker, 2 weeks ago America was told that this body was taking action to ensure that just about everything we do is done in full public view. No secrets and nowhere to hide--and that is exactly the way it should be. But now, in an ironic twist, it appears that there is an effort by some to silence any and all discussion of the Speaker's potentially lucrative book deal. The citizens of this country deserve to know what kind of financial arrangements have been made in this book deal and what has been discussed behind closed doors that may affect public policy. There are a lot of things we do not know about the book deal. And that has to raise serious questions and concerns about possible improprieties and conflicts of interest. [[Page H334]] But today's and yesterday's action on this floor--and today's rulings, the rulings handed down yesterday and today--have all but stopped us from engaging in an honest dialog on this matter. It is a slap in the face to the public, and to this institution. If the majority party is sincere about doing the public's business in a truly open and public fashion, I challenge the leadership to back up their words with action.

Mr. BECERRA

Mr. BECERRA. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman for allowing me to have these few minutes. I was watching some of the discussion over the television as I was in the Judiciary Committee, and I thought it was important enough to come down here, because at this very moment our committee is debating the balanced budget amendment and I just wanted to add a few points. It seems to me that for the last month and a half we have been talking about how open this new Congress will be and how important it is to give the people of America a chance to really understand the workings of the House of Representatives and of the Senate. Yet it seems to me the first thing we are doing with this balanced budget amendment is closing doors to openness to the American public. We are not giving them any idea about how we are going to pay for anything in the balanced budget amendment. As the gentlewoman from Connecticut pointed out, we are talking about cutting $1,200,000,000,000 over the next 5 to 7 years, and the American people should know what that means. It is to me somewhat disconcerting to find that in the Judiciary Committee today the only way we could try to extract anything from the Republican majority on how they intend to pay for this is to propose amendments to find out if they would include those amendments to protect certain programs, for example, Social Security. We had an amendment that would say that in the process of trying to balance the budget we would not go after the moneys that hardworking Americans have put into the Social Security fund. That amendment failed. The Republicans said we could not do that. Now, their reasons are similar to that analogy that I recall from that zealous military man who said that in order to save the village he had to burn it. In essence, that is what we were told today in the Judiciary Committee. We cannot put an amendment in that would protect Social Security from the massive cuts, because if we do so, we will ruin Social Security. The logic evades me. Just minutes ago--in fact, I missed the vote because I was trying to get here--we had a vote to try to exclude some major cuts like veterans' benefits for those who have served in the wars of this country, defending this country, and who have now come back injured. We could not get the Republicans to agree to that amendment. So it is disconcerting to see that the only way to try to find out what they are not willing to protect is by proposing amendments which they are now rejecting. The gentleman from California [Mr. Miller] pointed out that right now in California, as they are suffering through some major devastation from the floods and rains, it seems almost incredulous to believe that we are now talking about a balanced budget amendment which would cut away the money for some programs like the Federal Emergency Management Agency which would provide those emergency dollars to California right now. We do not know whether that will happen or not because we cannot get anyone in the majority to tell us, and that is a true shame. It seems that what we should be talking about right now is openness. It reminds me of those games that the kids play. Right now we are playing hide and seek with the American people. Rather than playing hide and seek, I think it is about time, since we are playing with Americans' hard-earned dollars, that we play show and tell. And at this stage we have not seen any show and tell.

Mr. BECERRA

Mr. BECERRA. Mr. Speaker, the citizens of this country deserve to know what is really at stake when it comes to the balanced budget. Everybody agrees we have to reduce and ultimately eliminate the Federal budget deficit, but what will it really take to get a balanced budget in 7 years without touching the amount of money we now spend on defense as the Republican majority proposes, while at the same time offering a big cut in income taxes? The Republican leadership is doing a real disservice to the American people by refusing to disclose what kinds of middle class programs we will probably have to get rid of in order to have to balance the budget by 2002. Just a few minutes ago in the Committee on the Judiciary the Republican from cuts to balance the budget. What about student assistance? Probably kiss it goodbye. Unemployment insurance? Major cuts. Medicare programs? Devastating cuts. What about cures for cancer? Our research institutions are facing massive cuts if this budget amendment passes. These are just a few examples of the kinds of massive program cuts that will occur. It is time for this open Congress to be truly open and tell the people how it will balance the budget.

Mr. BECERRA

Mr. BECERRA. Mr. Speaker and Members, I do not think this is a debate about whether this is the most open of open rules or closed rules in the history of this Congress, because it is a completely closed rule. If I had in my hand today an amendment to try to preserve for us the right to ban the gifts from lobbyists, I would not be able to do that right now. So let me quote to you some words that I think are most eloquently stated, back in May 25, 1993, ``With closed rules, voices all across America are silenced. Republicans want the people to have choices, and that can only be done by having open rules.'' Those very eloquent words were uttered by our new Speaker, Mr. Newt Gingrich. I would urge all of my colleagues in this House to recognize the words uttered by our new Speaker, that we should have open rules. This is a closed rule, it is not a good way to start this first year of this new Congress.

Mr. BECERRA

Mr. BECERRA. Mr. Speaker, I also rise in opposition to this measure.