Jim Moran

Mr. MORAN

Mr. MORAN. I will attempt to that, Mr. Speaker. I was reading the introduction of comments that I think are quite relevant. The majority leader of the Senate, in offering this motion and speaking to it prior to its passage in the Senate, which it has now, this is the very same motion offered by the minority leader.

Mr. MORAN. I think it goes directly to the integrity of this House.

Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, I cannot imagine anything that goes more directly to the integrity of this House and the issues for which we are responsible than to act in a constructive way when we understand that the American public is shout out of its Government and Federal employees are shut out of their jobs.

Mr. MORAN. I will accept the Speaker's interpretation of what I was saying. Rather than quote the majority leader of the Senate, I will simply say that his comments, I felt, were relevant, and this is the very same legislation that is being offered here. Let me make the second point that I wanted to make with regard to the integrity of this House. When this House voted to go on vacation and leave the Government shut down, I think that went directly to the integrity of this House. Now we have an opportunity, with legislation immediately before us, to pass that legislation to get the Government up and running. The other body has seen fit to do that.

Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, I appeal the ruling of the Chair. motion to table offered by mr. armey

Mr. MORAN. We took action to go on vacation when that was the case. We have an opportunity to rectify it. I think it is consistent with the integrity of this House to rectify it now.

Mr. MORAN

Mr. MORAN. I thank my friend, the gentleman from Illinois, for yielding. Mr. Speaker, the Committee on Rules of this House reported out a resolution that will come to the floor tomorrow that would have this Congress go on recess until January 23 while the Government is shut down, Federal employees are locked out of their jobs, the American public is locked out of their Government. We have done this before. I would urge this body not to do it again. This will haunt us for the rest of our careers. We cannot go home without doing our jobs. If we recess, it means that 760,000 Federal employees will not get paid at all for the next paycheck. They will not be able to make their rent. They will not make their mortgage. They will not be able to make their car payments. They will not even be able to put food, many of them, on the table for their children. Do not do this to the career civil servants who support this Government. We are all in this together. All of the American people have an interest in the Government running efficiently and effectively and fairly.

Mr. MORAN

Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, during 1987 when we had a Republican President and a Democratic Congress that could not agree, what we did was to respond to the President's request to have a continuing resolution throughout the year. Again in 1988 we had the same inability to agree, and we had a continuing resolution throughout the year. This is the normal course of business. That is what the majority leader in the Senate has attempted to do. He said yesterday this does not make any sense. Whatever point there was, I do not know what the point was, but it has not been made. The fact is that what we are doing is punishing Federal employees, and that is the point we want to make. The Congress is not punishing the President, it is not punishing ourselves. We are punishing innocent Federal employees, public civil servants. These people are innocent. Politics is the art of compromise. It is not the tactics of terrorism. Terrorists take hostages, innocent hostages for purposes beyond anything to do with the hostages. This has got to stop.

Mr. MORAN

Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good and very decent friend, the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Emerson], for yielding to me. Mr. Speaker, 1995 should be the year of the Federal employee. From the bombing in Oklahoma City to the fact that we have now reduced 117,000 jobs from the Federal Government, and now to the longest furlough, shutdown, in the history of the Federal Government, Federal employees have been punished through no fault of their own. It is time we brought an end to the real suffering that these families are experiencing. And not only is it the anxiety, it is what we have done to the perception of public service. A recent poll was taken of all the honor roll students in the country. Only 10 percent chose public service as a career they wanted to enter. This may be why, what we in the Congress have done to the Federal civil servant. So I would hope that we would seize this opportunity before us right now to accept legislation that passed by unanimous consent in the Senate. If we agree to this, we can now put Federal employees back on the job. By January 3 we will have paid out or agreed to pay out $1.6 billion to Federal employees for not performing work on the job. This is just to the Federal employees who have been furloughed, who have been locked out of their jobs. Some Federal employees have tried to get back into their offices, because they felt guilty about the fact that their colleagues were having to do their work. They were told it is illegal even to volunteer to perform their job. They do not want to get paid for not working, they want to work. They should get paid for working. What this will do will ensure that they are put back on the job. All Federal employees will be considered essential employees, and then we will ensure that they get compensated for their work. This is the right thing to do, it is overdue. I appreciate the fact that we have colleagues on the other side who would support this, and will recognize the value of civil servants. I appreciate the leader of my party offering this amendment. I would hope that we would now agree to it, by unanimous consent, just as was done by the Senate, and Federal employees can be back on the job by Tuesday, if we will do this.

Mr. MORAN

Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for yielding. In the first place, we have a bill here at the desk that has been passed by unanimous consent in the Senate. We know if we passed that bill which we just considered, we just spoke on, S. 1508, Federal employees are put back on the job, and all of the things that the gentlewoman from Maryland [Mrs. Morella] said which are certainly so true, we respond in a positive, effective way to that situation. The problem with this bill is that we have been told, and unequivocally, that the Senate will not accept this bill. There are 46 Senators, Democrats, over in the other body who will feel disenfranchised, who will feel that we are dictating to them something they will not accept, because they have to represent the interests of their constituency. Now, the fact is that there already are specific provisions dealing with reconciliation bills that streamline the process, that limit debate on these reconciliation bills. There are already rules in place that are designed to expedite the legislation. This is not necessary. This is far more restrictive provisions than they can accept, and regardless of the merits of whether or not they should accept this, the fact remains that this will do nothing to get the job done, to get Federal employees back on the job. Let me just suggest something to consider: If you are 20 feet from shore and you are drowning and somebody throws you a 15-foot rope, it is well-intentioned, it goes more than halfway, it is what needs to be done, you would assume, to throw a rope, but if the rope is not long enough, the rope does not get to the person who is drowning, it is no good. That is the analogy that applies to this piece of legislation. This piece of legislation dooms Federal employees to be locked out of their job and the American public locked out of their Government until we begin all over again next week. If the President agrees to something, then it is clear that the Democrats in the House and Senate are going to follow his lead. So it should not be a problem. There is no reason why we cannot approve the legislation we just talked about. We just got the support; every Member spoke positively who spoke about that legislation. If we do it today, Federal employees are back on the job today. We have done our work, and then we ought to be able to enjoy the holiday. Otherwise, we have no business even being on recess.

Mr. MORAN

Mr. MORAN. In other words, just to understand the Speaker's interpretation, if a Member is asking for a parliamentary inquiry, they would first have to reserve the right to object in order to state their parliamentary inquiry.

Mr. MORAN. This Member was waiting for a response from the Speaker, assuming that a parliamentary inquiry had to be responded to before any further determinative action by the body could take place.

Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, parliamentary inquiry. Is not the Speaker required to enunciate the proper procedure to determine whether there, in fact, is unanimous consent? This Member did not hear unanimous consent requested, and thus was not able to respond.

Mr. MORAN

Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, this Congress has finally headed home, not just for the holidays, but for the rest of this session. We have already apparently taken our last vote. This may be one of the last, if not the last speech on this floor for this session of Congress, and when history records this session of Congress, they will record it as being the least productive and the most destructive session of Congress in U.S. history. By the end of the fiscal year, we had passed the Paperwork Reduction Act and the Unfunded Mandates Act, and no appropriations bill. After wrangling for 9 full months, after being given the President's budget, only 1 of 13 appropriations bills had actually gotten to the President's desk, and that was the legislative branch. And thank God the President vetoed it. The last thing we would have wanted as a Congress is to have our salaries and our organization funded and none of the rest of the Government. We were lucky that he vetoed the legislative branch. But that meant there were no appropriation bills and we were dependent upon a continuing resolution. Now, what we have done is to go home for the holidays while Federal employees are locked out of their jobs and the American public is locked out of their Government. Each of the most compelling cases that we have brought up have apparently been dealt with. We brought it to the floor that 3.3 million American veterans would not get their benefits, so there was a reaction and we got a bill to take care of them. I hope that it will go through. I have no confidence at this point. It has not been passed by the Senate, as far as I understand. Those checks will be delayed anyway. We brought up the fact that 13 million welfare recipients have to have their checks processed by December 26. We are planning on being in recess, home with our families, but denying 13 million welfare recipients, most of whom have to have their check just to survive. The check has to pay for their rent. Without that check, they would not even have food to put on their table. These are the neediest of American citizens. Except for the last action we just took, they would have been denied the assistance they need to live on. There is no question they did not have any money saved up, particularly right before Christmas. Then we added on the District of Columbia. Imagine, we have gone now for October, November, and December, holding up the District of Columbia's money. Not just Federal money, and this is what I do not think people fully understand, but we held up all their local property tax money. Imagine if you were the mayor or on the county council or a citizen of a locality, you had paid in your own property tax money, and then the Federal Government told you you cannot even spend it? You cannot even spend it to educate your own children, to pick up your own trash, to place your police on your own streets? But that is what we did to the District of Columbia. So that is why we added that to the bill we just passed, and hopefully will be enacted. We did not take care of Medicaid. It is going to be $11 billion that the States need that will not be sent out to the States for medical assistance for the most needy; 52 percent of it is for nursing home patients. We did not deal with Israel. Israel gets $3 billion at the beginning of the year. They have not gotten it, and, because they have not, we are told by bond credit rating agencies that Israel is losing its credit rating. That has not only repercussions in Israel, but international repercussions. I do not think that is going to get through. That is a very serious situation. But we will be home for the holidays. Meanwhile, 500,000 Federal employees will currently be getting half a paycheck. On January 5 they will get zero. Hundreds of thousands of these employees have been working at their jobs and doing the work of all the other colleagues, 260,000 of whom have been locked out of their jobs and told it is illegal to even volunteer to perform work for the American Government. This is outrageous. We all ought to be ashamed. I cannot believe we are going home for the holidays, letting it stand.

Mr. MORAN

Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, of course we need to get benefit checks out to veterans and of course we have got to get the benefit checks to 13 million welfare recipients. For most of them, they have nothing else to live on. They have got to pay their monthly rents. If we do not do this, they will not even have food to put on the table for their children. Of course we have to get $11 billion out to the States in Medicaid payments. The States need that money. My problem is, how many other problems exist out there that we are not aware of? One problem is that 500,000 Federal employees are only going to get half their paychecks currently. The next paycheck they get is zero. I talked to a Federal employee last night. He has been working 14- hour days. His colleagues who want to come in and help him are told it is against the law to even volunteer to help him out. This is ridiculous. These Federal employees want to work. We are locking them out of their jobs. We are locking the American public out of their Government. That is why we need a full continuing resolution, at least through the Christmas holidays, if we are going to go back with our families and enjoy the holidays. We have got to open this Government. To do anything else is a shame on us and a real travesty for the American people.

Mr. MORAN

Mr. MORAN. If the gentleman would continue to yield, I guess the real question is, would we anticipate being called back perhaps to vote on that? Is that some possibility? I know there has been a request. Does the leadership think that that is of an urgent enough matter that we might be called back to vote on that independently?

Mr. MORAN. Mr. Leader, I do not want to belabor this discussion, but I want to ask, I know that you are aware that 500,000 Federal employees only got half a paycheck for this current paycheck. But I wanted to emphasize that the January 5 paycheck for everyone, whether they worked or did not work, will be zero. Of course for those who have been working all along, I think that is a serious situation, that they have worked every day, they have probably done twice as much work because of the number of people who have not been working, and their paycheck will be zero as of January 5. So the problem is, if we do not get a full continuing resolution, and I think the date is probably January 3, for that January 5, paycheck, then I think we have an extremely serious situation, that we could not possibly recess for the rest of the month of January without rectifying it. I want to bring that to the leader's attention. I assume that he has considered that.

Mr. MORAN. I think we are all aware of the situation that Israel is in, a unique situation where they get their $3 billion at the beginning of the fiscal year. We understand that their bond credit rating is now in jeopardy because of the fact that it is unclear if and when they will get that money in a timely manner. I wonder if the leader would like to assure them as to what to expect, and perhaps the Members of the House, who surely will be asked what the status is of the $3 billion for Israel. Would you like to assure us, Mr. Leader, as to what they should expect? At this point unless we taken action, there is some likelihood that Israel's bond credit rating will drop through the floor.

Mr. MORAN

Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding time to me. Mr. Speaker, I would like to respond to the chairman of the Committee on Rules that the Democrats will be here. We will be here as long as it takes to open up this Government, Mr. Speaker. I want to move over to the Republican microphone here, as my friend, the gentleman from New York, moved to the Democratic microphone, because it is the Republican side of the aisle I would like to address. The gentlewoman from Ohio [Ms. Pryce], who introduced this resolution, suggested that she was concerned about us becoming grumpy old men. That may be a concern, but we need to be more concerned about being responsible legislators. We cannot pass this resolution. Let me explain to you why, those Members who are in the body here, and those Members who are watching television. In the first place, Mr. Speaker, if we do not pass this legislation, on December 26, 13 million welfare recipients cannot get their checks. Many of them can't survive without them. They do not have any assets to tide them over. They live on their monthly checks alone. They will not be able to buy food for their children. Families will not be able to pay their rent which is due on the first of the month. If we do not have a continuing resolution in effect by December 27, the States will not receive $11 billion of Medicaid money. They cannot function without that money. They have to get that money. We have to pass a continuing resolution now. This is too serious a threat to the well-being of this Nation if we don't get a continuing resolution passed now to reopen the Federal Government. Mr. Speaker, let me also tell the Members if we go until January 3, Federal employees, and I appreciate the fact that the Speaker signed a letter saying they will get paid, but Federal employees will get paid at that point $1.6 billion for not having performed any work. How can we justify that to the American taxpayer? That is what the bill is running, every day we go on. It was $750 million during the first Government shutdown. I am counting that money. It will be $1.6 billion if we do not have a continuing resolution and those 260,000 nonemergency workers are still out of work by January 3. We cannot let this happen. We cannot pass this resolution. We have to stay here and do our work. We cannot leave when the Government is shut down.

Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, just like the veteran that left the message last night, he did not want his interests being put ahead of the American public's interests, we cannot put our interests ahead of the American public's interests. We cannot go home and enjoy Christmas with our families if we have not done our job, if the Government is still shut down. Consider these 13 million welfare families. They cannot get payments at the beginning of the month. We know they have no disposable income. They have spent all of their money on Christmas presents at the beginning of the month. They have to pay their monthly rent. They are not going to have money for food, never mind monthly rent. How can we go and enjoy our families when they cannot even survive because we have not done our job?

Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, I am not going to reach any conclusions. I am just trying to tell all my colleagues who I very much respect, I do not think we have a choice. I do not think we can pass this. In any good conscience, we cannot go home and leave the Government shut down, no matter how much we would like to be with our families at Christmas. We have to do our job. Please vote against this resolution.

Mr. MORAN. I yield to the gentleman from Missouri.

Mr. MORAN

Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, I think the gentleman from Massachusetts knows how much I respect and like him, and I would hope that the President would know as well, how much I respect him, even though I must urge my colleagues to vote to override this veto. I am surprised, frankly, that the President vetoed this, because I know that one of his favorite books is ``The Death of Common Sense'' by Phillip Howard. This is commonsense legislation. It is necessary legislation. If in faith it does get vetoed, we may not get another shot at it. Frankly, when you read this message, much of his objection is of a nitpicking nature. It is legalistic. We know we are going to have the Second Circuit standard applied, and that in fact when legislation is at variance with legislative history or report language, that it is the bill itself that prevails. But I do not want to speak as a lawyer, I want to speak as a stockbroker, which I was for 10 years. The fact is the most frustrating thing we encounter is the need for accurate, informative, relevant information. But I have to say, if I were the CEO of a high growth company, I would not provide that information, because of the number of people out there that will game the system. These people who exploit the deficiency of our legal system do not put any money into capital, they do not do anything for our economy. They find ways to make themselves wealthy by abusing the system. What this is is an antifraud and abuse bill that ought to be passed.

Mr. MORAN

Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, there is no good reason why 260,000 Federal employees should be shut out of their jobs, particularly at Christmastime. This is unprecedented to punish Federal employees because they chose to be civil servants. But that is what this body is doing. And to do it at Christmastime, when virtually all of these Federal employees have children, have been looking forward to Christmas, would like to be out shopping after they finish work each day, but they cannot. They do not know whether they will be paid. They are aware of the press conference that the Speaker had where he alluded to the fact that a great many Republican Members of this body, particularly freshman, are opposed to reimbursing Federal employees for this period of time when they have been locked out of their jobs. Imagine the strain, imagine the anxiety, imagine the sadness on the part of their children when they see the toll this is taking on their parents. I have been told by teachers, by one of the principals, in fact, of an elementary school in my district where a lot of Federal employees send their children, that their children are not acting like this is Christmas. Normally, you have pageants and children jumping up and down and squealing with laughter and looking forward in anticipation of Santa Claus. But we have stolen their Christmas from them this year, because their parents cannot afford to go out and buy presents. Their parents have no reason to be happy. Their parents do not know what is going to happen to them, because it is in our hands. We control what this Christmas will be like for these thousands of Federal employees. And it is wrong. It does not have any reason to be tied to a 7-year balanced budget. You know, you look back at history, when we have had conflicts between the majority in the Congress and the executive branch, when President Reagan had a conflict with the Democratic Congress in 1987, we went the whole year on a continuing resolution. President Reagan never thought of sending Federal employees home and punishing them and locking them out of their job just because he could not agree with the Congress. Certainly, the Democratic Congress never for a moment thought that they would punish Federal employees like that. In 1988 we had the same situation, a continuing resolution all year. And now we cannot even get a continuing resolution for the 3 days of Christmas, for this Christmas weekend. We cannot even get this continuing resolution to let Federal employees function and to open up the Government. Why? Because certain Members on the Republican side of the aisle are saying ``It is our way or no way.'' They just passed a resolution, I am told it was unanimous, I cannot believe it was unanimous because there are good people on the Republican side of the aisle, to say that there will not be a continuing resolution unless the President agrees to the entire 7-year balanced budget. It is wrong, it has got to stop, and the American people have to got to say no, this is not what we want from our Government.

Mr. MORAN

Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking Democrat on the Committee on Appropriations for yielding time to me. Mr. Speaker, let me explain why we have problems with this bill. It is certainly not that this bill provides benefits for veterans. The problem with this bill is that it is shortsighted and insufficient. If we do not pass a continuing resolution by December 22, this Friday, 13 million welfare checks cannot be processed by the Department of Health and Human Services. Are we going to pass a specific continuing resolution for welfare checks? I think not. But they cannot be processed if we do not have a CR by December 22. If we do not have a continuing resolution by next Wednesday, $11 million in checks cannot be sent to the States by the Medicaid program. The States cannot function without that $11 billion in Medicaid programs. Between votes I checked my message machine. I just want to share with you a little message that was on it. It said: ``Please tell Congressman Moran that we veterans have been hungry before, we veterans have been cold before, but we veterans have never put our interests ahead of the country's interests before.'' He said: ``As far as I am concerned, I do not want my benefit check until women and children get their checks first.''