John Linder

Mr. LINDER

Mr. LINDER. Mr. Speaker, I offer an amendment in the nature of a substitute.

Mr. LINDER. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the amendment and the resolution. The previous question was ordered.

Mr. LINDER. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 354 and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. LINDER. Mr. Speaker, for the purposes of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Frost), pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only. Mr. Speaker, House Resolution 354 is a closed rule providing for the consideration of H.R. 3194, the D.C. appropriations bill for fiscal year 2000. The rule provides for one hour of general debate divided equally between the chairman and ranking minority member of the Committee on Appropriations. Additionally, the rule waives all points of order against the bill. House Resolution 354 also provides for one motion to recommit, with or without instructions, as is the right of the minority members of the House. Mr. Speaker, House Resolution 354 is a closed rule, recognizing the full and fair debate that the House had on similar legislation earlier in this Congress. This rule will assist the House to move forward in the appropriations process. H.R. 3194 continues to fund the District of Columbia at $75 million over the President's request and makes no changes to funding levels from the previous D.C. appropriations bill. With this bill, we continue to provide $17 million for scholarships to low-income D.C. residents, $2.5 million to help improve children's health centers, and $5 million to provide incentives for the adoption of foster children. The President's request did not include funding for any of these important programs. With this legislation, charter schools will have access to construction funds, the schools will have the same opportunity to expand as other public schools, and parents will be able to send all of their children to the same charter school. H.R. 3194 enacts the $59 million tax cut passed by the D.C. City Council, and it works with the Council to make vital changes in city management that will place Washington, D.C. on the road to financial recovery. This bill also restores the original language for needle exchange initiatives, continuing our commitment to prohibit Federal support for these dubious and irresponsible programs. The Clinton administration's own Department of Health and Human Resources prohibits the use of Federal funds for needle exchanges, and we should maintain this consistent standard. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have taken the necessary steps in this bill to bring this chapter of the appropriations process to a close. I applaud the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Istook) for his patience and his willingness to work through this difficult process, and I urge my colleagues to support this rule and the underlying legislation. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. LINDER

Mr. LINDER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds to point out that my friend, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Frost), who spent nearly 2 decades in the majority, spending 100 percent of the Social Security surplus without batting an eye, is now concerned that we are trying to save it. I further would like to point out that every family in America has learned how to cut 1 percent of their family budget. Surely, even the Pentagon can figure out how to do that. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to my friend, the gentleman from southern California (Mr. Cunningham), a member of the Committee on Appropriations.

Mr. LINDER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Mrs. Johnson).

Mr. LINDER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. At the risk of sounding remedial, I would like to point out to the gentleman from New Jersey that there is no tax cut in this bill. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Biggert). (Mrs. BIGGERT asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. LINDER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Tiahrt), a member of the committee.

Mr. LINDER. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Porter), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education of the Committee on Appropriations.

Mr. LINDER. Mr. Speaker, I gratefully bring an end to this discourse by yielding the balance of my time to my friend, the gentleman from Southern California (Mr. Dreier), the chairman of the Committee on Rules.

Mr. LINDER. Mr. Speaker, I move the previous question on the resolution. The previous question was ordered.

Mr. LINDER. Mr. Speaker, for purposes of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Frost); pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only. Mr. Speaker, House Resolution 345 provides for the consideration of the conference report to accompany H.R. 3064, a bill to provide for fiscal year 2000 District of Columbia appropriations, and for other purposes. Mr. Speaker, this rule waives all points of order against the conference report and its consideration, and provides that the conference report shall be considered as read. The rule provides for 2 hours of general debate divided equally between the chairman and the ranking minority member of the Committee on Appropriations. House rules provide for one motion to recommit, with or without instructions, as is the right of the minority of the House. Mr. Speaker, this resolution is intended to move the appropriations process forward and send the message that we are committed to sending all of the 13 appropriations bills to the President. I heard it stated on the House floor earlier this week that only three times in the last 2 decades has the Congress passed all 13 appropriations bills by the fiscal deadline. Like past Congresses, we did not meet the set deadline, but today we are sending the final appropriations bill to the President for his signature. Keeping America's fiscal house in order does take a little longer than the freewheeling spending days of the past because we must ensure that all funding is spent efficiently and where it is needed most. Notwithstanding the fiscal constraints we now face after decades of fiscal irresponsibility, the bill before us today responsibly funds areas important to every American citizen and also protects the American people from waste, fraud and abuse in Federal agencies. I want to discuss briefly the contents of the conference report that this rule makes in order. Mr. Speaker, this is a responsible bill that provides funding for important issues across the Nation. It includes funding for the District of Columbia, and substantial funding for education and health programs in the jurisdiction of the Departments of Education, Labor, and Health and Human Services. It also forces Federal workers to weed out waste in all of their agencies to find savings that will protect the Social Security program. The President has stated clearly that they want to spend more money. Once again, Members on the other side of the aisle have refused to admit what the rest of America strongly believes, that Social Security funds should be spent on Social Security benefits and nothing else. I urge President Clinton to work with Congress to ensure that Social Security is not raided to spend more money on wasteful and inefficient Washington spending plans. To achieve this, we are including in this bill a plan to direct every Federal agency to reduce spending by less than 1 percent, .97 of 1 percent, by rooting out waste, fraud and abuse. Surely the Federal Government can save one penny out of every dollar, and the American people know that. By cutting waste in the Federal Government, we can stop the raid on Social Security that this government has done for decades. American citizens every month sit at the kitchen table and find ways to pay their bills and save money for their future. This Congress is simply asking the men and women who run Federal Government agencies to make the same kind of fiscally responsible budgeting with the money taxed out of our paychecks. This plan puts the power in the hands of each agency because each agency would have the opportunity to identify that percent of waste, fraud, and abuse and eliminate it. It is up to the agency head to decide where to find the savings, and I am sure even the best government program wastes at least 1 cent on the dollar. For example, the Government Accounting Office audits have found that Federal agencies were unable to account for over $800 billion in government assets, that one out of every $18 spent in the Section 8 program is wasted, and that the government lost over $3.3 billion on students who never paid back their student loans. Another example of waste; approximately 26,000 deceased persons received $8.5 million in food stamps. We all know that the agency directors and executives know where the waste is, and I am relatively certain they will be able to weed out at least that much in savings with this sensible plan. The second component of this conference report includes the District of Columbia funding that was included in the first D.C. appropriations bill, appropriating a total of $429.1 million in Federal funding support for the District and sending $6.77 billion in District funds back to the people of Washington. We maintain a number of important provisions that are designed to turn our Nation's Capital around, including ratification of the tax cut plan that was allotted by the city council and the Mayor of the District of Columbia to provide more opportunity for District residents to save their hard-earned money, reinvest it, to create jobs, and stimulate economic growth. In addition, part of the city-wide effort to revitalize the District also depends upon efforts to reduce the scourge of drug use and related crime in the District of Columbia. Therefore, we have provided funding for universal drug screening and testing, additional probation and parole officers, and drug treatment services. I am also very pleased that the bill retains the current law prohibition on Federal funds from being spent on any program to distribute needles for the purpose of illegal drug injection. Finally, the third component of this conference report includes funding for the final appropriations bill allocating money for the Department of Labor, Education and Human Services. The Labor, Education, HHS allotment includes health and education funding, including funding increases for the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant, the Ryan White AIDS Health Services, and Head Start. We have also included more funding than the President requested for education in the form of education block grants, safe and drug-free schools, State grants, and vocational education State grants. We continue to seek to fund education initiatives in ways to infuse incentives, flexibility, and accountability into a system that has so often felt comfortable with the status quo, and this conference report moves us toward our goal of strengthening our schools and improving learning for all of our children. In the Health and Human Services portion of the conference report, I am also personally pleased that the National Institutes of Health has received an increase in funding over the President's budget request. I believe that medical research represents the single most effective weapon in our arsenal against the diseases that affect Americans. The advances our scientists and doctors have made over the course of the last century could not have been predicted by even the most farsighted observers. Our own lives might some day depend on the efforts of scientists and doctors currently laboring in our Nation's Federal laboratories, and I am pleased that this important account has been increased for fiscal year 2000 so that this research can continue and expand. I urge the President to stop issuing veto threats to our fiscally responsible appropriations bills and join us in preserving Social Security and maintaining our balanced budget. I hope that this conference report serves as a first step toward a cooperative budget process that will result in a balanced budget and secure a future for America's seniors. This rule was favorably reported by the Committee on Rules last evening. I urge my colleagues to support the rule today on the floor so that we may proceed with a general debate and consideration of this important conference report. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. LINDER. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 345 and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. LINDER. Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of injecting some sorely needed truth into this discussion, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Istook).

Mr. LINDER. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Goss), my colleague on the Committee on Rules. (Mr. GOSS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. LINDER

Mr. LINDER. Mr. Speaker, what he said, as I heard it, is that it does not provide any additional penalties that are not already there.

Mr. LINDER. Mr. Speaker, for a quiet and dignified response, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Coburn).

Mr. LINDER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Mrs. Johnson), the author of the Johnson substitute.

Mr. LINDER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Canady), the author of the bill.

Mr. LINDER. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Hutchinson).

Mr. LINDER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Moran).

Mr. LINDER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Latham).

Mr. LINDER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Coburn).

Mr. LINDER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, nearly 50 years ago, Doctors Watson and Crick were given the Nobel Prize in medicine for discovering the stuff of life. They defined deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA. Twenty years ago, Dr. Crick suggested seriously in Great Britain that people reaching the age of 80 ought to be eliminated because they were very expensive and not productive. That is the casual attitude about life and death that we ought not let States undertake. This bill does two substantive things. It adds protections for doctors who use medications to treat pain, and it applies a 1970 law on controlled substances equally across 50 States. All States must abide by that law, irrespective of Oregon's decision to exempt itself from it. If Texas chose to exempt itself from a national law in deadbeat parents, would we sit by and say, well, that is fine; they had a vote, it is not our business? If New York voted to allow no welfare reform and allow people to stay on welfare forever, would we sit back and say that is fine, it is not of our business, they voted? Federal laws should be abided by equally by 50 States, and we have a 1970 Controlled Substances Act that Oregon has chosen to exempt itself from. This law would change that. Must we treat life with more dignity than we are in Oregon? Should we allow people to take their lives or to ask others to take their lives? We think so. Two decades ago, a Methodist pastor was in Connecticut Hospital in serious pain from cancer and wrote a letter to Bill Buckley, the editorialist. He said, ``I have spent a great bit of time thinking about suicide and praying about it. But then I concluded that I have no right to take away what God has given me on this Earth. I do, however, have the right to pray for early release from this diseased ravaged carcass.'' We have no right to take away what God has put on this Earth or asking our friends who are doctors to take it away. But this bill is not about that. This bill is about saying that 50 States must abide equally by national laws, in this instance the 1970 Controlled Substances Act. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution. The previous question was ordered.

Mr. LINDER. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from south Texas (Mr. Paul). (Mr. PAUL asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)