Tom Davis

Mr. DAVIS

Mr. DAVIS. Mr. Speaker, let me explain. This takes S. 1508 and ties to it an expedited procedure for consideration of a budget resolution when it is agreed to by the President and congressional leaders in the Senate that would not make it subject to filibuster, that would move that along so this country could get on with a 7-year CBO-scored balanced budget. This would, though, allow Federal contractors to continue to work as Federal employees come back to supervise those contracts. The contractors, you talk about unintended victims, are people who have really been cut out of that process, and this would allow Federal employees to get back to do work and do all of these things mentioned. The difficulty has been that so far there has been an objection in the Senate to this, and hopefully by passing this in this body and sending it over, perhaps the Senate can work out their differences and send it back. It is really in that spirit that we move to this.

Mr. DAVIS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that it be in order to consider in the House the Senate bill (S. 1508) to assure that all Federal employees work and are paid; that the amendment I have placed in the bill be considered as read and adopted, and that the bill, as amended, be considered as passed.

Mr. DAVIS

Mr. DAVIS. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman yielding to me. I just want to rise in support of the minority leader's request. We have introduced a companion bill to S. 1508 which the gentlewoman from Maryland [Mrs. Morella], the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Wolf], the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Moran], the gentleman from Maryland [Mr. Hoyer], and others have cosponsored here. This would simply call that up. This would put Federal employees back to work. We have said we are going to pay them. Let us let them earn their way the way they would like to do. It just seems that if we want to recruit and maintain the best and brightest for Federal service, given the fact that they are undergoing downsizing and their benefits are being cut, these furloughs and unpaid Christmases are just not the way to go. This will put them back to work. I support the request.

Mr. DAVIS

Mr. DAVIS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce the House companion bill to S. 1508--a bill that was approved by the Senate on December 22, 1995, and that would allow all furloughed Federal employees to return to work. This bill enjoys widespread bipartisan support and would save millions of taxpayer dollars while giving Federal employees a legally binding claim to be paid. S. 1508 is a short bill that simply declares that all Federal employees be deemed to be performing services relating to emergencies involving the safety of human life or protection of property. This ``emergency'' designation will last through February 1, 1996, and will temporarily circumvent the legal obstacles that require Federal agencies to classify employees as either ``excepted from the furlough'' or ``furloughed'' whenever there is a lapse in appropriations without temporary spending legislation enacted. This legislation will meet the demands of taxpayers who want Federal services to be available, as well as Federal employees and contractors who simply want to be able to perform the duties that Congress and the President have assigned them to perform. S. 1508 will reopen those national parks and museums that remain closed due to the President's veto of the Interior appropriations bill and will make it possible for thousands of Americans to obtain much- needed passports and visas that are currently unavailable due to the President's veto of the State, Justice, and Commerce appropriations bill. Further, many contractors who have now endured a combined 18 days--during the two shutdowns of 1995--without pay will be able to resume work because this legislation allows their contracts to be properly supervised and managed by Federal employees who have been furloughed. Finally, by allowing the remaining 280,000 furloughed workers to return to work, taxpayers can expect to receive the quality services that they pay for each April 15. Each day that we fail to end this shutdown costs the taxpayers an estimated $40 million in lost productivity and uncollected user fees and fines. Unfortunately, S. 1508 is only an incremental step toward achieving pay for the 760,000 Federal workers who currently work for agencies that do not have approved appropriations for fiscal year 1996. On December 20, the Speaker and majority leader pledged to retroactively pay all Federal employees once a balanced budget or continuing resolution is enacted. The measure I am introducing today will give Federal employees an enforceable legal claim to receive pay for services rendered. With the adoption of this measure, Federal workers should be in a stronger position to negotiate with creditors regarding any late payments that are necessitated by the Federal Government's failure to honor its payroll obligations in a timely manner. Further, S. 1508 will also move Congress and the President closer to a full agreement that would fund these agencies and pay for their employees and contractors. I am committed to working continuously with Members from both parties and with the President to bring an end to this unnecessary, but extremely costly, partial shutdown. The framework for an agreement that would have avoided this impasse was established on November 21, 1995, when the President signed his name to a continuing resolution that endorsed a Federal budget that balances in 7 years according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office economic forecasts. Today, more than 5 weeks later, the President has still not offered a budget plan that meets the criteria that he agreed to in November. His most recent budget plan was rejected by the House of Representatives by a unanimous and bipartisan 412-to-0 vote. While concerned taxpayers continue to wait for a good faith effort by the President to offer a balanced budget plan, Congress should act to provide relief to the innocent victims in this dispute--the 760,000 Federal workers and thousands of additional contractors who remain unpaid. By returning furloughed civil servants to work, this bill takes an important step toward the eventual complete retroactive pay for affected Federal workers, and for the resumption of work for contractors and services for taxpayers. I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan bill that has already been approved by the other body.

Mr. DAVIS

Mr. DAVIS. Mr. Speaker, I come here today as a Member representing a district in Northern Virginia across the river with many Federal employees and Federal contractors. As my colleague in the neighboring Eighth District just noted, these are really the unintended victims of this shut down. We literally are going to have hundreds of thousand of people not receiving their paychecks on time. Even those out there who have been working, who have been declared essential over the past week, will not receive their paychecks on time come the first of the year, unless some action is forthcoming from this body. We are having literally thousands of employees of Federal contractors at this poing being furloughed, or in other cases the companies are having to eat their time because they are not getting paid in a timely manner from the Federal Government for doing work that they have won contractually. They are performing services for the Federal Government, but at this point their paychecks will not be forthcoming either. The ripple effect that has had out in my district is in the retail stores, it is among the merchants, and it is hurting the economy locally. This can be spread across the country in other districts around the country. Not just with Federal employees, but people looking forward to getting their mortgages at the end of the year and cannot get Federal approval for it, veterans benefits which because of our dillydallying here over the last couple of weeks, some of those benefit checks for the first time I believe since the Second World War will not come out on time. And this is going to be multiplied and multiplied. Then I was more dismayed to hear the next talks between our leadership, the congressional leadership and the White House, will not take place until next Friday, I believe at this point. With no prospect of anything happening next week, I have got to tell you, I am most discouraged at this point. But let me just share some thoughts and observations. I was one of three Members on this side of the aisle today who voted for the motion to recommit which would have in fact offered a clean continuing resolution, that would have said during the Christmas holiday season, workers who have been doing their jobs will continue to get paid, other Federal workers who we have assured will eventually get paid will be paid in a timely manner, and contractors could continue to work and support their families. There are other ways to bring pressure on the appropriate levels of government and branches of government to bring this about. A continuing resolution could be passed at a lower spending scale than even currently has been suggested, which would force the administration to make choices over who was the most essential, where the money was going to be spent, but it does not shut down government entirely and allows different parts and sections and functions of government to then be prioritized. That helps keep the pressure on the administration and congressional leadership to move forward and reach an agreement. I have got to tell you, I am frustrated at this end of Pennsylvania Avenue, too, with the actions of the White House. The President said during the 1992 campaign that he favored a balanced budget. He appeared right up here in this House in 1993, in the State of the Union, and said he was for the Congressional Budget Office certifying the numbers. To date, he has sent four budgets up here. The last one voted on in this body did not receive 1 vote, defeated 412 to nothing, and none of them balanced as scored by the Congressional Budget Office. None of them comes actually close to balancing in the year 2002. He signed an agreement last month saying he would work with us to try to balance the Federal budget by the year 2002, scored by CBO, and have that agreement by the end of the year. It is clear that is not going to happen now. But, in the meantime, he has not even submitted his own plan, the document that would balance over a 7-year period, scored by the Congressional Budget Office. I think he has an obligation to the American people to say ``I don't like the priorities that have come from Congress, that have been given to me. Here are my priorities. Here is how I would balance the budget.'' Then, we can at least look and compare and trade back and forth, which is, I think, the essence of democracy. I do not think either side to this can say it is going to be my way or no way. We have 435 Members in this body. We are all going to have to compromise and come together to reach a majority vote and send something down to Pennsylvania Avenue. We have done that on a couple of occasions this year pertaining to the budget. We are going to now have to compromise once again with the White House. It is important for our children's future and for this country's future that we balance the Federal budget; and, frankly, there is no end in sight at this point and it is very discouraging to me, as one Member of this body. I will tell my colleagues that I like local government, where I served for 15 years prior to coming to this body, because we would have differences, we had strong philosophies, but we would come together; and at the end of the day recognized it was in the public interest to work out our differences, to work out our disagreements and come to some resolution of them. At this point, it is a dark day in this body and a dark day on both sides of Pennsylvania Avenue because we have not been able to come together. So I took the opportunity today to join with only a couple other Members from this side of the aisle to vote for a motion to recommit that would have, in fact, allowed us to come up with a clean continuing resolution, put the workers back to work, pay the current workers not being paid for the work they are performing, and get a cooling off period for all of us. How is it fair for Members of Congress to be paid to go home for a week and back in their districts with the Government shut down? It just makes it easier for us to do that in this body when we are not trying to go through the same anguish and anxiety of the many hundreds of thousands of Federal employees that are being adversely affected by our actions here. So that is my discouragement with this process. I look forward to working with my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, with my fellow freshmen on this side of the aisle, and others to try to come together as the new year approaches, to try to work a new resolution where we can work with the administration and balance the budget together.

Mr. DAVIS

Mr. DAVIS. Mr. Speaker, let me associate myself with my colleagues from the metropolitan area who favor keeping Government open. This area has taken a huge hit during this time period, but let me talk today about what is possible, and that is the District of Columbia appropriations bill and the continuing resolution for that. The city is unique in that 85 percent of its money does not come from the Federal Government. Right now, because of our inaction in Congress, they are barred from spending even their own money, even their own money to keep the city open, to keep the libraries open, to keep the rec centers open for the youth, collect the trash, keep foster care going. This will ensure that the city workers will have been paid for the time period they have been working over the last week which they have been doing in a sense with a wink and a nod. This will also help the city get its fiscal house in order and start the planning and start downsizing the city. This will fund the control board. The last shutdown cost the city $7 million. They did not have any productivity. This will keep the city up and running for a short period of time until we can work out the appropriation level. Let us stop the rhetoric. Let us pass this resolution.

Mr. DAVIS

Mr. DAVIS. I yield to the gentleman from Rhode Island.

Mr. DAVIS. We are talking about retroactively. I would love to put them back to work today.

Mr. DAVIS. Mr. Speaker, my colleague from North Carolina just made a statement that made me come out of my seat. Do you believe then Federal employees should not be paid for the time? You just criticized the Speaker for saying the Federal employees, who, through no fault of their own----

Mr. DAVIS. I yield to the gentleman from North Carolina.

Mr. DAVIS. Should they be paid?

Mr. DAVIS. Should they be paid? Reclaiming my time, the gentleman did not answer my question. I think it was a cheap shot at Federal employees. They are the innocent victims in this. I applaud the Speaker and the leadership of both parties. I applaud the leadership of both parties for recognizing that this budget impasse continues if the President has refused to sign some of the bills.

Mr. DAVIS

Mr. DAVIS. Mr. Speaker, I have to reclaim my time. If I have time, I will yield for a question. Let me say to my friend from Pennsylvania, I do not know if it is extreme polarization on the budget. Clearly, among 435 Members, we have all kinds of opinions. Some Members do not feel that we ought to balance the budget. Some want to balance the budget their way or no way, and we have some of that. We cannot all stand completely on principle, or we would never get anything out of here. We have to compromise, and I recognize that. The difficulty that we have on our side of the aisle is that the President whether he was campaigning in 1992, said he was not balancing the budget in 5 years. In 1993, he got up here at the State of the Union and said CBO numbers were the most reliable numbers. Now we come up with CBO 7-years and we have yet to see a plan from him that balance in 7 years, and that has caused us some confusion. Mr. Speaker, when we see that plan, I think it is going to be easier to compare the President's vision with numbers that balance and our plan.

Mr. DAVIS. Mr. Speaker, I would be happy to yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Kanjorski] to finish his point.

Mr. DAVIS. I am pleased to yield to the gentleman from Missouri. Mr.VOLKMER. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to hear the news that the Federal employees are going to be paid, but they are not going to be working. Mr. Speaker, I submit the following letter for the Record. Congress of the United States, December 20, 1995. Hon. John Warner, U.S. Senate. Hon. Frank R. Wolf Hon. Constance A. Morella Hon. Tom Davis U.S. House of Representatives. Dear Colleagues: Because of your interest in the ongoing budget negotiations and your strong support for federal employees, we wanted to take this opportunity to reaffirm our letter of November 10, 1995, in which we made clear that employees furloughed through no fault of their own should not be punished. It is unfortunate that President Clinton has chosen to veto appropriations bills that would have funded the salaries of federal employees at the Departments of Justice, State, Commerce, Veterans Affairs, and Housing and Urban Development, as well as independent agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency. Similarly, procedural objections by Democrats have prevented the funding of salaries at the Departments of Labor, HHS and Education. The direct result of those actions is that furloughed federal employees at those particular agencies cannot be paid. However, we would like to reaffirm our commitment to restoring any lost wages for federal employees in a subsequent funding bill. Thank you for your continued and strong leadership on behalf of federal workers. Newt Gingrich, Speaker of the House. Bob Dole, Senate Majority Leader.

Mr. DAVIS. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I recognize that, but I think it is key if we could get in that box of 7 years, with honestly scored numbers, then we are all talking off the same song sheet. Right now we are not there. Ours has been scored by the Congressional Budget Office. We know what it does. If my Democrat colleagues do not like the values or what it does to people, that is fine. But how would my friend do it within the same box? Let me make a couple of other points. Federal employees have really, during this whole debate, been an unintended victim of this debate. Over the last several years they have seen the Federal Government downsized and many Federal employees have been losing their jobs and having to go elsewhere. We have seen their benefits cut. We saw them cut in the last Congress. This time, there were resolutions up here to have them give up another 2\1/2\ percent of their pay to put in their retirement. We saw an effort to bring their retirement down so that their standards would not be the high 3 years, but the high 5 years. That would basically reduce their retirement. We saw some proposals up here that would cap the Federal payment for the Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan, which would mean they would be paying more for their health insurance. We saw another proposal here that would charge Federal employees for parking, even in buildings where nobody else was paying a parking fee. We were able to defeat most of those as we were moving ahead, but the unsettling thing is that working for the Federal Government is not what it used to be. We used to say, ``Give me your best and your brightest.'' Now it is come work for us; we will cut your benefits, we will downsize you, we will furlough you. Now they are experiencing furloughs and it is the Christmas time. Today is December 20. Many Federal employees would have received their paychecks today, but because of the shutdown in some agencies, that is not going to happen. Mr. Speaker, the good news today, and I would like to ask unanimous consent to put in the Record a letter to Senator John Warner, to myself, to the gentlewoman from Maryland, Mrs. Morella, the gentleman from Virginia, Mr. Wolf, my colleague from Virginia, a letter from Speaker Newt Gingrich and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, where they say in here that, and I will put the whole letter in the Record, but they basically assure Federal employees that when this is over, they will be paid retroactively. Mr. Speaker, this has always been done before; this will be done this time. Having the House leadership on board, and the Senate leadership on board at this time, is very important.

Mr. DAVIS. Mr. Speaker, I would be happy to yield to my friend, the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Scarborough].

Mr. DAVIS

Mr. DAVIS. Ms. Speaker, I have lost my voice but I have not lost my will here. Quite frankly, if the President had signed some of the appropriations bills on his desk last week, we could have kept the park system open and a number of other agencies. I think he was saying my way or no way. I think both sides need to get together and keep talking. What bothers me about this is that a month ago the President signed a resolution saying a balanced budget, 7 years, CBO numbers, and a month later he has not submitted any plan that does that. Hopefully, he will put that on the table, we can get both sides to pass a continuing resolution, and we can move ahead at that point and negotiate out the differences. And there are honest and sincere differences, but we need to move ahead. The American people are relying on us to do this. Certainly the markets are at this point. I wanted to bring up something else today, and that is the innocent victims of this whole thing, and that is the Federal employees. Federal workers today have been undergoing a lot of stress. They have been undergoing downsizing efforts by both the administration and this Congress. Benefit cuts. Many have been proposed that have not gone into effect, but some have in the agreements that have gone through as well. So they are undergoing downsizing, benefit cuts and now furloughs at Christmas time. The tragedy for these workers, who we are asking everyday to do more with less, is they cannot even, under Federal law, go get a second job. They cannot even work as a store department Santa Claus under Federal rules. So we furlough them, we do not let them have another job, and now we have Members saying, well, we cannot pay these people because they are not working. But they want to work, they want to be out doing the job that we have asked them to do, but the Federal law does not allow them. These people will miss their Christmas paychecks. And to suggest that they should not be paid, when it is no fault of their own and they are unintended victims of this, is outrageous. We have to recognize that if Government wants to attract the best and the brightest, and maintain these people in our Federal work force, so they can get the job done as we cut the budgets and ask people to do more with less, we have to bring their morale around and we have to incentivize them to do that, and we are not acting in a way to do this. If we were a private company and were undergoing downsizing, with the stress that we have, we would never threat our employees as we have done in this particular case. Of course, they should be paid, when this is all over and the resolution is done. It has happened every time before. For Members to suggest otherwise, and who say, well, it looks stupid to pay people for not working, it is not their fault they are not working. They want to be there. The only reason they are not is because we have not reached agreement with the President of the United States. We will never get good people to come back into Government to serve the Government. As President Kennedy said, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. We will never get that spirit when we start treating workers in this shabby a manner. I would hope the President will put a balanced budget on the table, as he promised a month ago. It will not meet the priorities of the Members of my side, but we can pass a continuing resolution, work out our differences, get these people back to work, let them perform the functions of Government and give the American people a Christmas present of a balanced budget.

Mr. DAVIS

Mr. DAVIS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my sincere appreciation to the Directors and staff of the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia [JCCNV], for their support and assistance in making the Job Fair I sponsored on Tuesday November 14, 1995, a great success. The center did not only donated the use of their facility, but made staff available who donated their time, energy, and spirit. Their efforts and willingness to serve make them an admirable role model. The Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia has served Fairfax County for almost 20 years. During that period the center and its operation have grown dramatically, from a small office with a part-time coordinator, to the center that now operates from a beautiful facility located on Little River Turnpike in Fairfax, VA. It was my privilege, first as a county supervisor, and later as chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, to work with the center's leaders to help them realize their goals of building a center and focal point for Jewish activities in Northern Virginia. In addition, the facility serves the entire population in meeting recreational and educational needs. On any given day the center is alive with activity--day care and early childhood classes, aerobics and fitness classes, swim instruction and basketball, senior adult clubs and after school clubs for students, programs for teens, computer classes, theater arts and Judaic studies. In addition, the center is home of the Gesher Jewish Day School. Mr. Speaker, during this Hanukkah season, I know my colleagues join me in honoring the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia. It is a light that illuminates our entire region serving our families and specifically our youth. At a time when traditional values matter most, the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia bolsters our community and helps make Fairfax an example for other communities to follow.

Mr. DAVIS

Mr. DAVIS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Mary Gormley, who was recently elected President of the Virginia Congress of Parents and Teachers--Virginia PTA--during the association's annual convention in Richmond. I have had the privilege of knowing and working with Mary for over 16 years during my terms serving on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and since joining this honorable Chamber. Mary has been active in the PTA for more than 20 years, and has also been involved in many other community and school related activities. She has chaired or served on the executive Boards of a variety of committees. She chaired the Volunteers for the International Children's Festival, held annually at Wolftrap Farm Park in Vienna, VA. She was President of the Annandale High School Band Boosters as well as President of the Annandale High School PTSA. She also has served as Secretary and Membership Chairman of the Fairfax Committee of 100, and as 1st and 2nd Vice President of the Fairfax County Council of PTA's. Additionally, Mary has served on various Fairfax County School Board committees including, School Consolidation, Substance Abuse, and the Division Superintendent Dr. Robert Spillane's Advisory Committee to name a few. On the road to attaining the prestigious position of Virginia State PTA President Mary served on the State level as 1st and 2nd Vice President. Mary's many years of giving have been recognized by her receiving an Honorary Life Membership in the National PTA; an Honorary Life Membership in the Virginia PTA; Lady Fairfax for the Fairfax County Fair, and Commendations from the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and the Fairfax County School Board. Mary is the wife of Brian Gormley and the proud mother of 3 children, Sean, Matthew, and Brienne Gormley. [[Page E 2290]] Mr. Speaker, I know my colleagues join me in honoring Mary Gormley, a woman who puts not only the good of the community, but our children's education and well-being ahead of herself.

Mr. DAVIS

Mr. DAVIS. Mr. Speaker, I think we can all rightfully take pride in the agreement reached last night. The President has finally recognized the need for a 7-year balanced budget scored by the Congressional Budget Office but with appropriate input from all sides. There is now, I think, a mutual commitment from both sides of the aisle, from the administration and Congress, to balancing the Federal budget, that it is the right thing to do for our children's future. I think, as Republicans here in the House, we promised the American people we would deliver a real balanced budget. We have been faithful to our word. We are and still are committed to stopping the almost endless mortgaging of America's future. Now we will work with the Democrats and the President to fashion a plan together to accomplish this. This week America will celebrate Thanksgiving Day. For the first time in many, many years, Congress has given the American people something to be thankful for, a commitment for a balanced budget. I look forward to working with my friends on the other side of the aisle to fashion a true balanced budget in the coming weeks.

Mr. DAVIS

Mr. DAVIS. I thank the gentleman.

Mr. DAVIS. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for yielding to me. I have a question for the chairman of the Committee on Appropriations. We see Federal employees are now going to be paid for this time period, but Federal contractors who have been out working under procurements that they earn competitively during this time period are not covered. For the work they are doing, the work products for the Federal Government, will they be paid for those efforts?

Mr. DAVIS. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. DAVIS. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will continue to yield, Congress is now going to apply the laws made for the rest of the country to this Congress of the United States. That did not happen in the last Congress. Gifts from lobbyists we have taken away. We are cutting our legislative budget. I think we are moving in the right direction here. I think that ought to be noted in light of some of the comments from the other side.