C. Young

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. That is my understanding.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and that I may include tabular and extraneous material on H.J. Res. 71.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. During the consideration of the rule, the House heard a lot of political rhetoric, some of which was fairly accurate, some of which had no accuracy whatsoever. But I am not here today to fight a political battle. That is for the campaign trail. I am here today to do the people's business. They want their business done. That is what we are doing. We are moving appropriations bills through this process. It is not easy. This is the smallest majority that any majority party has had in the House for nearly 50 years. So of course it has not been easy, especially when the President is of a different party than the majority in the House. But this is not the place to fight out those battles. Today we extend the continuing resolution until the 29th of October, so that the government can continue to function and that the people who work for the government can continue to get paid, and the obligations that our government has continue to be met. We can do our campaigning at another time, at another place. We were not sent to do our campaigning in this chamber. We were sent to do the people's business. And so I would ask for support of this continuing resolution so that we can have those meetings with the President, so that we can have those conference reports sent to the President's desk, so that we can get the President's vetoes and that we can deal with the vetoes and try to reach an accommodation with the President, because he plays a constitutional role in this issue, although somewhat belatedly. I recall having asked him back in April if he would be willing to get engaged in this budget process and received no answer to this day. But, anyway, I would hope that the House will approve the CR so that we can get on with the balance of the people's business.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume in support of H.J. Res. 71. Mr. Speaker, this is a clean continuing resolution that would extend the present CR until October 29. In addition, it includes a provision so that affected Government agencies would have the authority to develop, prepare, and make the November monthly payments for mandatory programs such as Social Security and veterans' pensions. This is necessary because this CR extension will expire near the end of the month and financial managers will not be able to begin their payment process without the assurance that the funds will be available to make the payments. That is the CR, pure and simple, Mr. Speaker. We need the additional time. We have several vetoes from the President that we are dealing with. The balance of the appropriations bills that have not been on the President's desk will be there very shortly. Mr. Speaker, since we have made all of our political speeches during the consideration of the rule, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 334, I call up the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 71) making further continuing appropriations for the fiscal year 2000, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I really had not planned to speak on the rule because I thought we might handle the rule quickly and then get to the continuing resolution, but when my dear friend from Massachusetts mentioned the fact that he disagreed with the gentleman from California (Mr. Dreier) that the Republicans had kept the appropriations schedule on track, he said they changed the calendar by about 3 months. It was not us that did that. I remember when the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Moakley) and I were both here in 1974 when the Democrats did that. The fiscal year used to begin on July 1. They could not get the job done, despite the fact they had massive majorities in the House. So they just changed the date of the fiscal year from the first of July to the first of October. Now, Mr. Speaker, I would like to also say to my friend, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Moakley) and any others who are concerned about the pace, the House Committee on Appropriations had reported out 12 of the 13 appropriations bills before the end of July, plus the two supplementals. The only bill that we did not report out was the Labor-HHS bill. And of all of the bills we reported out, we passed them all before the August recess in the House, all but the VA- HUD bill. And the VA-HUD bill was held up out of respect for a member on the Democrat side who requested that we postpone consideration of that bill, and we were more than happy to do it. So the House has pretty much done its job on appropriations ahead of schedule. So I just took this time to remind my very dear friend from Massachusetts that the House appropriators have done a pretty good job in keeping the train on the track and keeping it running on time. There have been some other situations that have slowed us down somewhat, but we are overcoming those too. And we are prepared, before this week is over, to have all of the conference reports on the President's desk.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, the question of Social Security is one that is important to all of us, especially those of us who have many people in their districts receiving Social Security checks. I would just like to show this graph that is based on figures developed by the Congressional Budget Office. This graph shows that the money that was taken from Social Security under the Democrats in the Congress rose dramatically. The Republicans took over at this line, and we can see what happened. The number went way down, and for fiscal year 2000 it is going to be zero. It is our determination, and that is one reason this bill does not spend as much money on foreign aid as the President wants, we are determined not to take any money out of the Social Security Trust Fund, and we are determined that any spending requests that go over the budget surplus will be offset. It is a pretty simple plan. But by doing this, we are going to maintain the balanced budget that we fought for years to get and finally achieved. We are going to preserve that balanced budget, and we are going to stop paying billions and billions and billions of dollars as interest payment on the national debt when we could use that money in more places than that.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commend the City of Largo, Florida in the Tenth Congressional District which I have the privilege to represent. The city has recently been named a finalist for the Innovations in American Government Awards and it is most fitting that we in Congress recognize this outstanding achievement. In 1997, the City of Largo noticed a problem with its processing of evidence in domestic violence cases, which in turn resulted in a low filing rate for instances of spousal and child abuse. To respond to this critical problem, Largo launched a secure internet site to house evidence relating to domestic violence cases. This site is available to law enforcement personnel, prosecutors, and judges, creating a much more efficient and effective way of handling domestic violence cases. The results have affirmed Largo's innovative initiative. Since implementation of this program, the prosecution rate for domestic violence cases has increased from 16 to 50 percent. This outstanding program deserves to be recognized by the Innovations in American Government Awards, and likewise deserves to be recognized by this Congress. We are all concerned about reports of domestic violence, and all of us in this House would certainly do whatever we can to put an end to this crime. That is why it is most fitting that my colleagues and I rise today to commend this aggressive program developed by the City of Largo. Please join me in saluting our city's leaders and this outstanding program as they are honored with this prestigious award.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. I thank the gentleman for yielding. I would like to add to what the majority leader said and explain that it had been our intention to file the conference report on the Interior appropriations bill this evening, but just at the last minute a new proposal was submitted, the administration had a very strong position on something, the Senate agreed that it should be considered, and so we are not going to have time to do that and file the bill and get it to the Committee on Rules tonight. We apologize. We had expected to have this bill ready for consideration on the floor tomorrow except for this last-minute wrinkle that developed.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me the time, and I rise in support of this conference report on our appropriations bill for our national security and our intelligence programs. The gentleman from California (Chairman Lewis) deserves a tremendous amount of credit for the hard work that he has done in getting this bill to the floor. Having had many years of experience as a member of this subcommittee, this was probably the most difficult year to go to conference on this bill that any of us have seen. The gentleman from California (Chairman Lewis) has done a really outstanding job and especially since this was his first year in that important position as Subcommittee Chairman, and I cannot say enough good words about the outstanding work that he has done. Also, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Murtha), who is the ranking member and the former chairman of this subcommittee, as usual has worked with the gentleman from California (Mr. Lewis) to keep this bill and any matters relating to national defense or intelligence totally nonpolitical, nonpartisan, which is as it should be. Our defense issues and our intelligence issues should not be political in any way. One of the problems that they faced as they produced this bill this year and went to conference with the Senate was a 13-year reduction in our investment in our national defense. However, at the same time we were making these reductions, we were sending our troops to excessive deployments in all parts of the world. Many of them, as all of our Members know, are still deployed today in places like Bosnia and Kosovo and plus the permanent deployments in Europe, Korea, and other places like that. We have tried to reduce the pressure of these excessive deployments, without much success, because the administration believes that anyplace in the world that there is an opportunity to send American troops they ought to do it. And they do it, and then they send us the bill after they spend the money. The air war in Kosovo, for example, was a very expensive air war. That air war was basically an American air war. We provided the airplanes. We provided the pilots. We provided the fuel. We provided the munitions. And despite the fact it was a NATO decision to go into that war, it was a U.S. war, and we basically paid for it. With this bill we are replacing a lot of the munitions, we are fixing a lot of the worn out equipment, we are trying to get a decent quality of life for those men and women who serve in our military by providing them a pay raise. And it is not really enough, but at least it is a significant step towards a commitment that some of us have made to get our men and women in the military up to a livable wage. It is really a shame when we still have to report that there are still several thousand Americans in uniform who have to rely on food stamps to feed their family. So we have to give some recognition to those people, and we have done that in this bill in addition to changing the retirement system. This is a good bill. And again I say, in my many years of experience on this subcommittee, this was the toughest conference meeting; and the gentleman from California (Mr. Lewis) and the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Murtha) deserve just a tremendous amount of credit in what they have been able to do to bring this conference report to the floor today.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I just hope that all Members will come to the floor and vote for this continuing resolution so that we can continue the appropriations process.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I listened with interest to the comments of my good friend from Maryland, a very important member of the Committee on Appropriations. I agree with him that the branches of government should communicate with each other. In fact, just a few days ago on the conference meeting on the Energy and Water bill, the administration had a problem with part of the language, and we invited them in to talk about it, and we resolved it in a manner that was satisfactory to both branches of government. I want to say to my friend who has just left the floor that during the meetings that some of us had with the President during the bombing war over Kosovo, we met at the White House, and we all had a chance to discuss certain things with the President. This was back early in the year. On one occasion when the President recognized this Member to make whatever comment I wanted to make, I said directly to the President, ``Mr. President, there are budgetary problems for fiscal year 2000 because of the 1997 budget agreement that put caps on our spending at $17 billion less than it was the year before.'' And I said, ``Mr. President, I think it is important for you personally to be engaged in this dialogue.'' So I considered that an invitation for the President to be involved in the conversations about the budget and about these appropriations bills. We have made the opening. We made the offer. We made the request of the President to get engaged. It was his decision not to do so.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I do not disagree with everything that the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) said, but I do disagree with some, and he knows that. We have had these discussions many times before. A lot of these comments should have been, and, in fact, were made at the time we discussed the budget resolution, because the issues that the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) is talking about really relate to the overall issue of the budget. Once the budget is approved by the Congress, then we, as appropriators, we deal with only our part of the budget that has to do with discretionary spending. So most of that debate that the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) just presented really belongs at the budget level. But we are talking today about a continuing resolution. What we are trying to do is to avoid what happened last year when we ended up in negotiation with the White House in an omnibus appropriations bill that we are still sorry we ever did. We are trying to avoid that by handling each bill separately. We are doing a pretty good job at that. This year we did two emergency supplementals requested by the President. They were signed into law. We did the Military Construction appropriations bill. It went through conference, was signed into law. The Legislative Branch conference report is awaiting the President's signature and has been there for a while. The Treasury-Postal conference report, again, as passed by the Congress, is on the President's desk waiting for his signature. The District of Columbia conference report is on the President's desk. We understand that will be vetoed, and that is one of the reasons we do need a CR, because the veto will take time to negotiate out with the President. The conference report on the Energy and Water appropriations bill was passed yesterday in the House and will be on its way to the President's desk very shortly. The Agriculture bill is in conference, and the conference signature sheets are being circulated to be signed and it will be ready to be filed shortly. The Foreign Operations conference report is completed and is in the Committee on Rules today. We have three other bills in conference. The Defense conference expects to wrap up their business tomorrow, Commerce-State-Justice is having some problems because of a lot of major differences between the House and the Senate, and the Transportation conference will meet tonight. So we are actually moving. On the other two, Interior and VA-HUD, we cannot go to conference until both bodies have passed the legislation. The Senate has just recently passed those last two, and we expect to be able to appoint the conferees sometime today. Of course, the real problem is the Labor-HHS bill, which we will mark up in the full committee on Thursday. So we do the continuing resolution to make sure that the Government does not falter in the meantime. Continuing resolutions are not new to the Congress. We all complemented the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) for the year that he chaired the committee, and he did have his bills done on time without any continuing resolution. But that year he had a lot more money than they had the year before. It is easier when you have a lot of money. This year we have $17 billion less than we had the year before. That makes it tough. But a little history. Let me take a few years while the party of the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) was still the majority party. In fiscal year 1994, we had three continuing resolutions for a total of 41 days. In fiscal year 1993 we only had one, for a total of 5 days. In fiscal year 1992 we had three CRs for a total of 57 days. In fiscal year 1991 we had 5 CRs for a total of 36 days. In fiscal year 1990 we had three CRs for a total of 51 days. Then when the Budget Impoundment and Control Act was enacted by the Congress, under the Democratic majority, for some reason, I guess because they could not get the job done on time, they changed the fiscal year. Many Members were not here when that happened, but the fiscal year used to begin on the first of July, but the majority party then was not able to meet the deadline, so they just changed the fiscal year. Talk about fiction, they just changed the fiscal year. So, anyway, we do have a CR today to avoid an omnibus appropriations bill and to get these bills individually to the President's desk. Sometimes I wish that this were fiction, but it is not. It is the real world. Appropriations bills, of all the bills we consider, appropriations bills must be completed. Again, I want to thank the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) for the cooperation he has given us throughout the year. I know there have been major differences, and we have explored those differences, but still he has cooperated and helped us move the process, and I say to him thank you very much for that. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time, and I want to compliment him and the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Moakley) for the drill that they experienced yesterday in the changing times on their schedule and the interruption during the hearing last night. But they have, as usual, done a very good job. I will not take any time other than to say there is no reason not to pass this rule. Everyone pretty much agrees on the resolution that we will be presenting here in just a few minutes. So, Mr. Speaker, again I want to congratulate the gentleman from California (Mr. Dreier) for the outstanding job he does as chairman of the Committee on Rules, and just suggest that we move this rule and get on with the continuing resolution, because some of us have conference committees to attend today, and we need to get busy finalizing the last few bills that are out there.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, there are several reasons why we bring this resolution today. One reason that has been aptly pointed out is that all the appropriation bills have not completed the process. Secondly, we anticipate that there will be several vetoes by the President which would require additional time to deal with the appropriation matters. We have asked for this resolution to be effective until the 21st of October. The President preferred the date of the 15th; the Speaker of the House preferred the date of the 29th; so we thought the 21st was a good compromise, and that date is in the resolution that we present today. Mr. Speaker, it is a clean resolution. It does not include any Christmas tree ornaments or add-ons or any projects or anything of that nature. To the contrary, it says that there will be no new projects until such time as the regular appropriations bills have been completed. Now I want to thank my colleague, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) who is the ranking member on the Committee on Appropriations, for the cooperation that he has given as we proceed with this continuing resolution. We provided him with copies early in the process, as well as the White House, as well as our colleagues in the Senate, and I think, except for whatever dialogue there might be of a political nature, we are pretty much in agreement on this resolution. So I want to thank the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) for the cooperation that he has given through the process and last night in the Committee on Rules as we proceeded to seek the rule that has just been adopted by the house. Mr. Speaker, there is not a whole lot more to be said about the resolution itself. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks on the consideration of House Joint Resolution 68, and that I may include tabular and extraneous material.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 305, I call up the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 68) making continuing appropriations for the fiscal year 2000, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the bill and to pay a special tribute to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Rogers) and the gentleman from New York (Mr. Serrano), the ranking member, because as we get to the end of the appropriations process for the 13 regular bills, the job gets a little more difficult, and they have done a really outstanding job in bringing us a bill that we should pass here. The gentleman from New York (Mr. Serrano) mentioned he wants to make it a better bill. He will be an important member of the conference committee as will the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Rogers) who will chair the conference committee. But they have got a good bill now. Could they use more money? Why sure. Back in our homes we could all use more money, at least most of us could. And in our businesses, we all could use more money. The government loves to have more money. But we took on the responsibility of trying to stay within the budget cap, at least balance the budget and stay at or below last year's level, and that is what the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Rogers) has been able to accomplish. I know there are some disagreements and some differences in how we got where we are, but let me tell my colleagues where we are. First off, Mr. Chairman, members of the Committee on Appropriations really have a special responsibility to this House and to the Nation. Of all the legislation that we consider in this House, the only bills that really have to pass, that must pass, are the appropriation bills, and the appropriators have recognized that responsibility, and I am happy to report that as we pass this bill today, we will have passed through the House 11 of the 13 regular appropriations bills. The 13th bill we had put off by agreement until we resume our sitting in September, and the VA-HUD bill that we were scheduled to consider on tomorrow, we have delayed consideration out of respect for our colleague, the gentleman from West Virginia (Mr. Mollohan) due to the loss of his father yesterday. So we will put off that bill until we reconvene in September. We will have done 11 regular bills before we break for the recess. We have done two supplementals. We will have done two conference reports by the time we pass this bill today. So 11 plus 2 is 13, plus 2 more is 15 important measures that the appropriators have brought to this House and passed through this House. We also expect, Mr. Chairman, to have 3 more conference reports ready on regular bills before this week is over. We have done a good job. There have been some disagreements, some in subcommittee, some in full committee, some on the floor. But, Mr. Chairman, this committee has had to consider, and I want all Members to pay attention to this, this committee has had to consider requests from Members, and Members have every right to come to this body to represent their districts and to represent what they believe is right for America, for some $80 billion in requests to add money over the budget. In most of those cases, while most of them were good projects that should have been considered, we did not have the money to fund them. Despite the fact we had to say no to an awful lot of Members because we did not have the money to fund the program that they wanted to fund exactly the way they wanted it, and again I want all Members to listen to this, Mr. Chairman, the Transportation appropriations bill passed with a vote of 429 to 3; the Energy and Water appropriations bill passed with a vote of 420 to 8; the Military Construction appropriations bill passed with a vote of 418 to 4; the Defense appropriations bill passed with a vote of 379 to 45; the Interior appropriations bill passed with a vote of 377 to 47; the District of Columbia appropriations bill passed with a vote of 333 to 92; and the list goes on. The bills have been receiving great bipartisan support. The appropriators have done a good job, have brought good appropriations bills at or below last year's level, which is the first time that has happened, except for national defense, where we did have increases that were necessary because of the many, many deployments that our troops have been required to conduct in the last 6 or 7 years. So I support this bill. It is a good bill. I understand that in conference the gentleman from New York (Mr. Serrano) will have an opportunity to work further on the bill, but with the leadership of the gentleman from Kentucky (Chairman Rogers) and the tremendous staff that we have on this subcommittee, I am satisfied that the end result will be a product that most of us can support.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, a number of Members have asked the question, what does this have to do with national defense and Kosovo? Because when the Clerk read out the title of the bill, it did refer to national defense, to the Kosovo supplemental. I wanted to advise the Members that there is nothing left in this bill that has anything to do with Kosovo and national defense or anything of that nature. That was all stripped out. This vehicle was an empty vehicle, and the other body used it as a vehicle then for this loan guaranty program. I just wanted Members to know that, especially because several have asked that question.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time. Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to my friend from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey), the ranking member on the Committee on Appropriations, and I agree with him that the wholesale use of the emergency designation would not be too smart, but then this is not the smartest place in the world. The emergency designation in our budget process was created in 1990. That was a long time before the Republicans became the majority party in the Congress. Since 1990, when the Democrats created this emergency provision, it has been used many times, not necessarily by the Republican majority that exists today. I would be happy to provide for the record and for Members who would like to see it, a very long list of times and events when the emergency designation was actually used. Now, let me say something about the census, which is the issue before us today that the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) mentioned. The problem here is we are dealing with the 1997 balanced budget agreement. I am not sure who the players were at that time, but when that decision was made, when those conferences were held, when the give and take was over, there was no money in the 1997 balanced budget agreement for the census, although everybody knows that the Constitution says there shall be a census every 10 years. Of course, the Supreme Court did rule just recently in a ruling that requires that we do an actual census count in the year 2000 plus the sampling that the Administration wants to do. But, anyway, the 1997 balanced budget agreement did not provide the funding to take care of the census for the year 2000. Now, when the House did the budget resolution for fiscal year 2000 this year, again there was no provision made for the census. So here we are trying to keep the budget balanced, trying to stay at or below last year's level of spending on all of these bills, except for national defense, trying to protect all of the receipts to the Social Security Trust Fund for Social Security recipients. We are doing all of those things, but we still have to do the census. So that is the reason that the committee decided and determined that we would use the emergency designation, similar to the way that this administration has used it without a lot of regard for what the balanced budget situation was and the way this Congress has used it many, many times. I would hope that we would order the previous question, adopt the rule, and get on to the bill.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the managers on the part of the House may have until midnight tonight, Wednesday, August 4, 1999, to file a conference report on the bill (H.R. 1905) making appropriations for the legislative branch for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2000, and for other purposes.