Gene Taylor

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. The Coalition budget is a step in the right direction. It would not borrow as much. Both of them, unfortunately, borrow money for the first year. It borrows less money, and cumulatively it borrows less, $50 billion less than the Republican plan. tribute to brett favre On a much lighter note, I am going to brag on a fine young man from the State of Mississippi, from a community that I doubt is even on the map, who last week was voted the most valuable player in the NFL, a young man by the name of Brett Favre, who is the most deserving of that of any American I can think of. His mom and dad are public school teachers back in south Mississippi. His dad was his high school football coach. He went on and played for the University of Southern Mississippi. By sheer hard work and determination, he has been recognized as the finest football player in the United States of America. It could not happen to a nicer family. It could not happen to a nicer guy. Congratulations, Brett Favre.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. It will cost the Americans more. And they keep saying they have a 7-year plan to balance the budget, but the first step is a step backward, not a step toward balancing the budget, a step toward larger deficit.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I wish a couple of my colleagues would take the time to read the report from the Congressional Budget Office that says that the budget that has passed this House increases the annual operating deficit for this Nation in 1996. It does not decrease it, it increases it. Even when they cook the numbers, it increases the annual operating deficit by $7 billion. You do not balance the budget by taking your first step backward. The second thing I would like to do is commend those wonderful men and women who work for our Nation's veterans hospitals, taking care of the people who came home from our wars in a situation much worse than they left, who are working for reduced pay. I want to tell them it is my deepest regret that they are not being fully compensated for what they have done. We have tried three times on the House floor on the Democratic side to bring a budget bill straight to the floor under an open rule that if people wanted to amend, they could, and three times now the Speaker of the House has ruled that would not happen. We will continue to work in your best interests.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, if the Chair is prepared to rule, I offer a resolution (H. Res. 321) directing that the Committee on Rules report a resolution providing for the consideration of H.R. 2530 provide for deficit reduction and achieve a balanced budget by fiscal year 2002, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, it was a resolution that called into question privileges of the House and this body as a whole.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, it was my understanding that it was the Chair's desire to call up the resolution at this time.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, it was my understanding that the Chair was going to rule on my privileged resolution today.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, under rule IX of the Rules of the House of Representatives, that one which refers to question of privilege. Mr. Speaker, under the Rules of the House of Representatives, questions of privilege, clause 1 states, ``Questions of privilege shall be, first, those affecting the rights of the Members collectively.'' In particular it says, ``Questions of privilege shall be, first, those affecting the rights of the House collectively, its safety, dignity and the integrity of its proceedings.'' Article I, section 8, clause 7 of the Constitution reads, ``No money shall be drawn from the Treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law.'' For those who have not noticed, this House is now 82 days late in fulfilling our statutory responsibility of providing a budget for the United States of America. As a consequence of this, over 300,000 Federal employees are wondering whether or not they have a job, whether or not they will ever be paid again and whether or not they should do for their children what each of us has been able to do for ours; that is, just go out and get them some Christmas presents, wondering whether they are going to be paid. In case many of my colleagues have forgotten, most Americans do live paycheck to paycheck. And if they miss one paycheck, then their checks bounce or all sorts of terrible things happen. Mr. Speaker, by failing to enact a budget into law this body has failed to fulfill our most basic constitutionally mandated duty. This Congress has failed to appropriate the necessary funds to fulfill the vital functions of this Nation and our failure to do so is inexcusable. As Members know, the House is getting ready to recess for what could be 1 week, what could be 2 weeks. I think that is inexcusable. I, therefore, on behalf of my fellow Representatives seek to resolve the situation, a situation that affects the rights of all Members collectively. Mr. Speaker, bringing a budget before the House under an open rule will allow the Members to amend it as they see fit. If they wish to include a tax break for families with children, it would allow them to do so. If they wish to work toward a budget that has a lower annual operating deficit than the one that the Republicans proposed, their budget has a $270 billion annual operating deficit for next year, then we could do so. But this calls to mind whether or not one of the most important things, and obviously the two most important things this Congress does is decide when and where to send young persons off to die to defend our country and to decide on the appropriations for this Congress. We have not done the second thing. Let me tell the Chair what has been judged to have been worthy to bring to the floor this week. This week, while the government is in shutdown, the House voted on the Stuttgart National Agriculture Research Center Act. We voted on the Snowbasin Land Exchange Act. We voted to waive a requirement for an HMO in Dayton, OH. We voted for a bill to extend au pair programs. We voted to designate a U.S. courthouse after the gentleman named Max Rosenn. We voted to designate the David J. Wheeler Federal Building, to designate the Frank Hagel Federal Building, the Timothy McCaghren Administrative Building. We have named four or five other buildings. We have taken up a lot of the citizens' time, but we have not provided a budget for our country. That is inexcusable. It is wrong, and this is the highest priority and, therefore, it should be given the highest priority and should be brought before this House for a vote. Mr. Speaker, I am not alone in this. I am a member of the coalition that has put together this budget. Several of the other member of the coalition wish to speak to the point. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Alabama, [Mr. Browder].

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I respectfully appeal the ruling of the Chair. motion to table offered by mr. burton of indiana

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, it is my understanding that under the rules of the House, that I have an hour to discuss this.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. I do.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, for how long am I recognized?

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, would the Chair be kind enough to give me some indication of how much warning that I would receive as a Member as to when this would be brought before the House?

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to rule IX, I rise to give notice that I will seek recognition as a question of the privileges of the House to offer a resolution in the following form. The resolution is at the desk.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. I thank the Chair.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Could the chair give a better definition of ``adequate notice''?

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, we are being asked once again to waive the rules. The highest lawmaking body in this country, probably in the world, is asking to excuse itself from its own rules once again. This body has a law called Gramm-Rudman that says we have to balance the budget. Yet the budgets proposed by the Democrats and even the budget proposed by the Republicans this year is $270 billion in annual operating deficit for this coming year, because you waived the rules. They passed tax increases, you are supposed to have a three-fifths vote, but they waived the rule on that, so a simple majority can do it. I do not think we are in trouble because of the laws of this land. I think we are in trouble because we will not enforce the laws of this land. It has got to start with ourselves. If the House has a rule saying that we can only recess for 24 hours at a time, let us obey it. If you want to change the rule, then propose a change to the rules. But we are the highest legislative body in the world, as far as I am concerned, and no one is going to respect us if we do not respect our own laws. Person after person came to the floor and talked about a Republican balanced budget. Jerry, I voted for your 5-year budget because I thought it would truly get us there. The budget you all are proposing has $270 billion in deficit for next year. And my Democratic colleagues, guys, they really are increasing the money for Medicare and Medicaid. You cannot call it a cut, and we are never going to get there if we are not honest. We are 3 days from Christmas and there are 300,000 Federal employees out there who are counting on us to keep our word to them. If I was them, since we have had so much trouble keeping our word, I would really wonder if their paycheck was going to be there. So I think we ought to stick around and make sure we pass something so those people get paid. If they are vital, let us pay them. If they are not so vital, then let us let them go but do not leave them out there in limbo, certainly not 3 days before Christmas.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. I have a privileged resolution at the desk. As you know, the Chair can either bring this up immediately----

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Will the Speaker recognize me for a unanimous-consent request?

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. The Chair has fulfilled my request. parliamentary inquiries Mr. BROWDER Mr. Speaker, I have a parliamentary inquiry.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I have a privileged resolution at the desk.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I am informing the Chair of my intention to serve a privileged resolution before this body, and as the Chair knows, under the Rules of the House, the Chair may bring this up immediately or may ask for a 2-legislative-day delay on this matter. Since the matter involves the highest privilege of the Members collectively, and that is the privilege of doing our constitutionally mandated responsibility of providing for the budget in the appropriations of this country, I would ask for its immediate consideration. As you know, Mr. Speaker, we have no budget before this country, and 300,000 good people are wondering whether or not they are going to get paid. We have a job to do. We are 81 days late in fulfilling our legal responsibility of providing for a budget for this country. The budget that was passed has been vetoed by the President. There are not sufficient votes to get the two-thirds majority to override the President, and it is my intention to submit, as a result of that, privileged resolution H.R. 2530, commonly referred to as the coalition budget, in an effort to break this impasse. I would like to point out that under rule IV of the Rules of the House of Representatives, Questions of Privilege, clause 1 states questions of privilege shall be, first, those affecting the rights of the House collectively. Article I, section 9, clause 7 reads, and I am guoting, ``No money shall be drawn from the Treasury but in consequence of an appropriation made by law.'' Obviously, we cannot solve this budget impasse until we have passed and the President has approved a budget. Today marks the 81st day that this Congress has been delinquent in fulfilling our statutory responsibility of enacting a budget into law; and again, one has passed, but short of the two-thirds majority needed to override the presidential veto. Mr. Speaker, by failing to enact a budget into law, this body has failed to fulfill our most basic constitutionally mandated duties. This Congress has failed to appropriate the necessary funds to fulfill the vital functions of our Nation.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I am doing so in telling my fellow Members.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I have a parliamentary inquiry.

Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I have a privileged resolution. When would be the proper time to bring it before this body?