Christopher Shays

Mr. SHAYS

Mr. SHAYS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Minnesota [Mr. Gutknecht], who is a very important member of the Committee on the Budget and also on the Committee on Science.

Mr. SHAYS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Shaw], a senior member of the Committee on Ways and Means, the chairman of the Subcommittee on Human Resources, and the architect of the most important legislation to pass this Congress, the welfare reform bill.

Mr. SHAYS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\3/4\ minutes to the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Hobson], a member of the Committee on the Budget and Committee on Appropriations and also a major participant in this historic agreement between the White House and Congress.

Mr. SHAYS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Washington [Mr. Nethercutt]), a new member of the Committee on Appropriations and the Committee on Science.

Mr. SHAYS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Kentucky [Mrs. Northup], a new Member to Congress and a very important member to the Committee on Appropriations.

Mr. SHAYS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Washington [Ms. Dunn], an elected member of the Republican leadership and a member of the Committee on Ways and Means.

Mr. SHAYS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from New Jersey [Mrs. Roukema], a 9-year member of the Committee on Banking and Financial Services and chairman of the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions. (Mrs. ROUKEMA asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. SHAYS. Mr. Speaker, at this time, it is our pleasure to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas [Mr. DeLay], the House majority whip and a senior member of the Committee on Appropriations.

Mr. SHAYS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas [Ms. Granger], the former mayor of Fort Worth and a member of the Committee on the Budget.

Mr. SHAYS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from California [Mr. Thomas], the chairman of the Committee on House Oversight, a senior member of the Committee on Ways and Means and chairman of its Subcommittee on Health. (Mr. THOMAS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. SHAYS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Minnesota [Mr. Gutknecht], a member of the Committee on Ways and Means.

Mr. SHAYS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Iowa [Mr. Latham], a member of the Committee on Appropriations. (Mr. LATHAM asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. SHAYS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 2 minutes. Mr. Speaker, a long battle began in 1989 when a fairly young Member of this House, the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Kasich], offered an amendment to balance the Federal budget to get our country's financial house in order. There were 30 Members who supported him in that long march. In 1990, 106 Members supported him. In 1991, 114 Members supported him. He did not offer an amendment in 1992, but in 1993, 135 Members supported John Kasich in his effort to get our country's financial house in order. In 1994, 165 Members supported him in his effort to get our country's financial house in order, and then with the election of 1994 we had the dynamic class of 73 Republican freshmen who came in and helped this man and helped this Congress get our country's financial house in order. In 1995, 235 Members voted to get our country's financial house in order, and the President vetoed that effort. In 1996, 216 voted for that, and the President vetoed it. Today we are at a historic point. We are at a point where this Democrat President and this Republican Congress have come together to get our country's financial house in order and balance the Federal budget. The President wanted more spending in certain areas, and this Republican Congress wanted tax cuts and changes to entitlements to slow the runaway costs of entitlements. This has been an effort of both sides, and this is an effort that needs to be supported.

Mr. SHAYS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Oklahoma [Mr. Watts].

Mr. SHAYS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Bilirakis], a senior Member of Congress and the chairman of the Subcommittee on Health and Environment of the Committee on Commerce.

Mr. SHAYS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Archer], chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means and the chief architect of this historic budget agreement between the White House and Congress.

Mr. SHAYS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Wisconsin [Mr. Neumann].

Mr. SHAYS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Arizona [Mr. Hayworth], a new Member in the class of 1994, a sophomore now, and a member of the House Committee on Ways and Means.

Mr. SHAYS

Mr. SHAYS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the conference report just agreed to.

Mr. SHAYS

Mr. SHAYS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Stearns], a member of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, for the purposes of a bipartisan colloquy with the gentlewoman from Michigan [Ms. Rivers].

Mr. SHAYS. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. SHAYS. Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the Republican Conference, I very proudly yield the balance of my time to the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Kasich], chairman of the House Committee on the Budget.

Mr. SHAYS

Mr. SHAYS. Mr. Speaker, I want to kind of catch my breath and to say to you after the budget agreement was passed in this Chamber I went back to my office, and on the back of my chair was this statement. It was from any staff, and I would like to read it. It said: The last time there was a balanced federal budget only four members of your staff were alive. You and your wife Betsy were teaching in the Peace Corps in the Fiji Islands. Your press secretary still had training wheels. Your chief of staff was drinking out of a bottle. Your scheduler had just graduated from high school. Your assistant manager was still using a typewriter. Half a million people were enjoying Woodstock, and John Kasich was probably one them. Richard Nixon was President. Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. The Academy Award winner was Midnight Cowboy. The song of the year was Jesus Is Coming Soon. And Newt was getting his Ph.D. We have a lot to look forward to, and we will all benefit from the good work of this House. Mr. Speaker, this was a momentous day for so many people, and I just want to thank all the staffs throughout this Congress working here in this Chamber, the staffs that work for Members' personal offices, the staffs that work on all our committees for the tremendous work they have done year in and year out to help us get to this day.

Mr. SHAYS

Mr. SHAYS. I appreciate the gentleman yielding. Just as I finished my statement on something my staff had written about what was life was like 20 years ago, the staff member said I just returned last night from visiting the wall where there are over 50,000 American soldiers who lost their life in Vietnam, and I could have added that 20 years ago we had soldiers in Vietnam who answered their country's call when the last time we had a balanced budget, and a number of those men who were sent to Vietnam never came back to see the day we have today where we are once again going to have a balance budget, and I thank the gentleman for allowing me that opportunity.

Mr. SHAYS

Mr. SHAYS. Mr. Speaker, I move a call of the House. A call of the House was ordered. The call was taken by electronic device, and the following Members responded to their names: [Roll No. 344] Abercrombie Ackerman Aderholt Allen Andrews Armey Bachus Baesler Baker Baldacci Ballenger Barcia Barr Barrett (NE) Barrett (WI) Bartlett Barton Bass Bateman Becerra Bentsen Bereuter Berman Berry Bilbray Bilirakis Bishop Blagojevich Bliley Blumenauer Blunt Boehlert Boehner Bonilla Borski Boswell Boyd Brady Brown (CA) Brown (FL) Brown (OH) Bryant Bunning Burr Burton Buyer Callahan Calvert Camp Campbell Canady Cannon Capps Cardin Carson Castle Chabot Chambliss Chenoweth Christensen Clay Clement Clyburn Coble Coburn Collins Combest Condit Conyers Cook Cooksey Costello Cox Coyne Cramer Crane Crapo Cubin Cummings Cunningham Danner Davis (FL) Davis (IL) Davis (VA) Deal DeFazio DeGette Delahunt DeLauro DeLay Dellums Deutsch Dickey Dicks Dingell Dixon Doggett Doolittle Doyle Dreier Duncan Dunn Edwards Ehlers Ehrlich Emerson Engel English Ensign Eshoo Etheridge Evans Everett Ewing Farr Fattah Fazio Filner Flake Foglietta Foley Ford Fowler Fox Franks (NJ) Frelinghuysen Furse Gallegly Ganske Gejdenson Gibbons Gilchrest Gillmor Gilman Goode Goodlatte Goodling Gordon Goss Graham Granger Green Greenwood Gutierrez Gutknecht Hall (OH) Hall (TX) Hamilton Hansen Harman Hastert Hastings (FL) Hastings (WA) Hayworth Hefley Hefner Herger Hill Hilleary Hilliard Hinchey Hinojosa Hobson Hoekstra Holden Hooley Horn Hostettler Houghton Hoyer Hulshof Hunter Hutchinson Hyde Inglis Istook Jackson (IL) Jackson-Lee (TX) Jefferson Jenkins John Johnson (CT) Johnson (WI) Johnson, E. B. Jones Kanjorski Kaptur Kasich Kelly Kennedy (MA) Kennedy (RI) Kennelly Kildee Kilpatrick Kim Kind (WI) King (NY) Kingston Kleczka Klink Klug Knollenberg Kolbe Kucinich LaFalce LaHood Lampson Lantos Largent Latham LaTourette Lazio Leach Levin Lewis (CA) Lewis (GA) Lewis (KY) Linder Lipinski Livingston LoBiondo Lofgren Lowey Lucas Luther Maloney (CT) Maloney (NY) Manton Markey Martinez Mascara Matsui McCarthy (MO) McCarthy (NY) McCollum McCrery McDade McDermott McGovern McHale McHugh McInnis McIntosh McIntyre McKeon McKinney McNulty Meehan Meek Menendez Metcalf Mica Millender-McDonald Miller (CA) Miller (FL) Minge Mink Moakley Molinari Mollohan Moran (KS) Moran (VA) Morella Murtha Myrick Nadler Neal Nethercutt Neumann Ney Northup Norwood Nussle Oberstar Obey Olver Ortiz Oxley Packard Pallone Pappas Parker Pascrell Pastor Paul Paxon Payne Pease Pelosi Peterson (MN) Peterson (PA) Petri Pickering Pickett Pitts Pombo Pomeroy Porter Portman Poshard Price (NC) Pryce (OH) Quinn Radanovich Rahall Ramstad Rangel Redmond Regula Reyes Riggs Riley Rivers Rodriguez Roemer Rogan Rogers Rohrabacher Ros-Lehtinen Rothman Roukema Roybal-Allard Royce Rush Ryun Sabo Salmon Sanchez Sanders Sandlin Sanford Sawyer Saxton Scarborough Schaefer, Dan Schaffer, Bob Schumer Scott Sensenbrenner Serrano Sessions Shadegg Shaw Shays Sherman Shimkus Sisisky Skaggs Skeen Skelton Slaughter Smith (MI) Smith (NJ) Smith (OR) Smith (TX) Smith, Adam Smith, Linda Snowbarger Snyder Solomon Spence Spratt Stabenow Stearns Stenholm Stokes Strickland Stump Stupak Sununu Talent Tanner Tauscher Tauzin Taylor (MS) Taylor (NC) Thomas Thompson Thornberry Thune Thurman Tiahrt Torres Towns Traficant Turner Upton Velazquez Vento Visclosky Walsh Wamp Waters Watkins Watt (NC) Watts (OK) Weldon (FL) Weldon (PA) Weller Wexler Weygand White Whitfield Wicker Wise Wolf Woolsey Wynn Yates Young (FL)