C. Young

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I definitely rise in opposition to the motion to recommit.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, as is so often the case, the motions of the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) are creative and appealing, and address subjects that should be addressed. What I would ask the House to do is to reject the motion to recommit. Let us get on with the regular order of dealing with these issues in the regular order, which we expect to do in a very expeditious manner. At this point, because we do not want to make too many major decisions in the dark of night, as we hear so often, let us simply vote against this motion to recommit, pass the continuing resolution, deal with House Joint Resolution 1, and get out of here for tonight.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Point of order, Mr. Speaker.

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

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, the House is not in order.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf), chairman of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State and Judiciary.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Knollenberg), who has just become chairman of the Subcommittee on Military Construction.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Kolbe), chairman of the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Export Financing and Related Programs.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 2 minutes. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) was speaking directly to the issue of the CR and to the issue of the necessary funding, and especially for homeland security. The gentleman is correct. In the supplemental that we presented, we covered most of those items that the gentleman mentioned. The President chose not to release some of those funds, and that was the authority that the President had. What I would say to the gentleman is my support for those issues is no less today than when we did the supplemental. We are in a procedural situation today. We need to get the CR so we can extend past January 11, which is the present CR, and we have to get the second CR which the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) has mentioned so we can conclude our work of the 107th Congress. A lot of Members are congratulating each other in starting out the 108th Congress. My comment to some of my colleagues is I am still trying to get out of the 107th Congress. That is what we need to do tonight. Let us finish the business of the 107th Congress, and then we will get on and take care of the issues that the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) has so properly identified. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Walsh), chairman of the Subcommittee on VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies, such as NASA.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Istook), chairman of the Subcommittee on Treasury, Postal and General Government.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of the time. I will be very brief just to say that it has been an interesting debate as usual. I appreciate the work that the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) and I are able to do together because we do agree a lot. My position is we should pass this CR and get on with completing the work of the 107th Congress. There are a lot of good issues raised here today by the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey), by the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), by others, but those will be fixed, and I am as anxious as they are to get those fixes in place. I would like to pass this CR now. I would like to take up the second CR immediately, pass it now, and get on to finalizing the work of the 107th Congress by completing the appropriations process for that Congress because we are starting the process for the 108th Congress for fiscal year 2004. We anticipate the budget from the administration shortly. We will begin our hearings in our subcommittees shortly. We will have a budget resolution this year that we will begin then to mark up our bills and bring them to the floor, but let us get this behind us, let us get this off the table, get it off the desk, get it out of contention. Pass the CR and let us get on to the business of the 108th Congress.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 15, I call up the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 1) making further continuing appropriations for the fiscal year 2003, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, the legislation before the House, H.J. Res. 1, will extend the current continuing resolution to allow the government to continue to operate through January 31 of 2003. All of the ongoing programs and activities will be continued at current rates under the same terms and conditions as fiscal year 2002, with the exception of funding for programs included in the Defense and Military Construction appropriations bills for fiscal year 2003, which have already been enacted into law. In addition, all the provisions of the previous CRs remain in effect, with one exception: It deletes a provision relating to the rate of operations for the Federal-aid Highways Program that had been enacted as part of the third continuing resolution. Specifically, that CR established total obligations for the highway program while operating under continuing resolutions. Section 4 of this resolution deletes that provision, and Mr. Speaker, it does so with the concurrence of the transportation and infrastructure authorizing committee. I want everyone to understand this action is going to affect the budget. We have been advised by the Congressional Budget Office that it will score an additional $1.1 billion in outlays on an annualized basis against this continuing resolution as a result of that deletion. So we are upping the price, but this was an agreed arrangement. So that is what we are going to do. The CR also includes five new provisions. I will briefly explain what they are. Number 1, it will extend the authorities necessary to make entitlement payments to include the Child Nutrition Programs, the Food Stamps Program, Medicaid grants to States, payments to Medicare trust funds, Trade Adjustment Assistance Programs, veterans entitlements and supplemental security income payments through the month of February. Number 2, it will maintain the annual blue collar worker pay adjustment to be consistent with other Federal pay increases. Number 3, it will allow for funding for the Public Companies Accounting Oversight Board as established in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, Public Law 107-204. Number 4, it will allow the District of Columbia to spend local funds at the revised budget levels for fiscal year 2003. Number 5, it will allow the Administrator of General Services to move forward on the GSA prospectus to lease space for the headquarters of the Department of Homeland Security. Mr. Speaker, we are beginning a new year and a new Congress. We need to get the business of the old Congress behind us. We will explain at a later date how we plan to do this, but this CR gives us time to put that plan into effect. I do not think this CR is controversial. I am not aware of any controversy. I urge the House to move this legislation to the Senate and then to the President so that there will be no question that the government will continue to operate smoothly and efficiently through January 31. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute just to say that I am not going to try to respond to all the political comments that are going to be made here this evening. I understand the minority is upset. They are upset because they are the minority, and I know about that. I served in this House for 24 years under their rule. And if my colleagues think what our party is doing tonight to manage the business of the House is something wrong, they should go back and look over the 40 years of their own rule. We had more closed rules, we had more autocratic management of this House, we had more weird crazy, creative schemes to get through the legislative process. And, yes, we complained, just like they are complaining tonight. But we have to get this job done. Come on. We are already beginning to get ready for our 2004 business. We need to get the 2003 business finished. Like I have suggested on other occasions, let us do our politicking somewhere else. Let us do the people's business here tonight. Let us get this CR out of here. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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

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 on H.J. Res. 1 and that I may include tabular and extraneous material.

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 on H.J. Res. 2, and that I may include tabular and extraneous material.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 15, I call up the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 2) making continuing appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2003, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I might consume. Mr. Speaker, this resolution, H.J. Res. 2, is identical to H.J. Res. 1 except for one thing, and that is the provision that allows the Defense Department the authority to transfer within their own accounts, they cannot go outside of their accounts, but to transfer up to $2.5 billion within their accounts to fight the war on terrorism, to pay for Enduring Freedom and to do the necessary things to make the security of our Nation happen. Other than that, it would also become the vehicle, we hope the vehicle, for the final appropriations bill for last year. We plan to conclude all of last year's appropriations bills using this as a vehicle that we will send to the Senate. We hope that they will do the right thing and send it back to us and we will either vote on it or go to conference. Anyway, that is how we are going to conclude our 107th Congress appropriations business. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I just ask for a yes vote on this resolution, and I yield back my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I would simply say that the gentleman's motion to recommit addresses a number of important issues, but they are important to the point that they should not be discussed or determined with a 5-minute debate on one side and a 5-minute debate on the other side. These issues are so important they should have considerable debate, and consideration by the committee, and consideration by the House, and because of that, Mr. Speaker, I object to the motion to recommit and ask the Members to oppose it and then vote for the continuing resolution.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the motion to recommit.

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 on H.J. Res. 124 and that I may include tabular and extraneous material.