C. Young

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, H.J. Res. 112 is the second continuing resolution for fiscal year 2003. It will extend the current CR until next Friday at midnight, October 11. The terms and conditions of the initial CR will remain in effect. All ongoing activities will be continued at current rates under the same terms and conditions as fiscal year 2002. I will briefly mention them again for Members. It will continue all ongoing activities at current rates, including supplementals, under the same terms and conditions as fiscal year 2002. The term ``rate for operations not exceeding the current rate'' continues to be defined as stated in OMB Bulletin No. 01-10. As in past CRs, it does not allow new starts, and it allows for adjustment for one-time expenditures that occurred in fiscal year 2002. It continues the eight funding or authorizing anomalies in the original CR. Mr. Speaker, this CR is non-controversial. I urge the House to move this legislation to the Senate so that the government can continue to operate until we have that glorious day when we conclude all of the appropriations bills. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 568, I call up the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 112) making further continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2003, and for other purposes.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

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 H.J. Res. 112, making further continuing appropriations for the fiscal year 2003, and for other purposes, 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 in which to revise and extend their remarks on H.J. Res. 111, and that I may include tabular and extraneous material.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

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

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Again, Mr. Speaker, this is a continuing resolution to keep the government funded until October 4, which is 4 days into the fiscal year. It is a bipartisan bill, and I would urge that we vote it quickly, send it down to the other body so that we can get it to the President's desk.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. I yield to the gentleman very, very briefly, because I have said there would be no other speakers.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of the time. Mr. Speaker, anyone observing our debate this evening would think that we were engaged in some great political activity and that this bill on the floor was going to affect the politics of this body. The fact of the matter is, we are only talking about a 4-day CR, and I would suggest that maybe some of us should save our ammunition for next week, because we are going to have to go through this all again next week, probably. As far as it being a CR, someone might get the idea that it is a sinister development or a sneaky procedure. Except for the year that the gentleman from Wisconsin chaired the Committee on Appropriations, we have used CRs around here forever. So this is not something that is new; it has been used before, a number of times, many times. But as strange as it might seem from all of this debate, this really is a bipartisan bill that we are debating here tonight. It is bipartisan because the gentleman from Wisconsin has worked closely with us to fashion this bill, and I do not want to get in trouble here with the rules of the House, but as well as the chairman of the Committee on Appropriations in the other body, and the ranking Republican member of the other body; we all worked together to fashion this nonpartisan, bipartisan continuing resolution. As I said, we are probably going to have to do this again next week, so if my colleagues have some other ammunition that they want to throw out, save it. Although I think everything that needs to be said has probably already been said, but let us see.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Peterson), who is a member of the Committee on Appropriations.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Herger).

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Kingston), a member of the Committee on Appropriations.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Shaw), my distinguished colleague.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay), a strong member of the strong leadership team in the House.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Boehner), the chairman of the Committee on Education and the Workforce.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the very distinguished gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Boehner), who is the chairman of the Committee on Education and the Workforce and who authored the outstanding education bill last year, H.R. 1.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to respond to my dear friend, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer). I want to assure him that however politically engaged this might become this afternoon, that none of my speakers will attack any of the gentleman's leadership. We had a lot of disagreements with the gentleman's leadership, but we are not going to raise those today. We have a strong leadership on our side and they have accomplished a lot in this Congress. We did hit a couple of roadblocks dealing with the budget process, and as the gentleman knows, we passed a budget. Whether the gentleman likes it or not, we passed a budget in the House. That did not happen in the other body. Secondly, I wanted to point out to my friend that the only two bills that we have had a request from the other body to go to conference on are the defense bill and the military construction bill. We in fact are in conference aggressively coming to closure on those two bills. With the exception of Legislative Branch appropriations, we have not had a request from the other body to go to conference on any other appropriation bills, including the ones that we have already sent down there to them. Mr. Speaker, I yield 6 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from California (Mr. Cunningham).

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute. I do so, number one, to say that I agree with some of the things that the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) has said, and I disagree with some of the things that he has said. I do want to thank him for helping us bring this resolution to the floor today, because it is essential. We have to pass this resolution, or Monday night at midnight the government closes down. I do not want that to happen. There may be some around here that want it to happen, but I am not one of them. But anyway, I do appreciate the fact that we finally have got this resolution on the floor. But I also want my friend, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey), to know that I am not going to try to respond in kind on any of the political issues that might be raised today, because my job and my responsibility today is to move this CR through the House, get it to the Senate, and get it to the President. Mr. Speaker, I yield 7 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Regula), the distinguished chairman of the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education. (Mr. REGULA asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I would like to reserve my time for just another couple of minutes if the gentleman could proceed.

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. 111, is a continuing resolution, a CR, for fiscal year 2003, and it extends our spending profiles for four big days. At midnight this coming Monday, the fiscal year ends. None of the appropriations bills has been sent to the President's desk, regardless of who is at fault. We have heard some discussion on that. We will probably hear more about that. But we need this legislation to continue operations of the Federal Government for the first 4 days of the new fiscal year. As everyone is aware, the Committee on Appropriations continues to work on the fiscal year 2003 appropriations bills, despite the fact that we have no common budget with the other body. The collapse occurred because we had a breakdown in the budget process, not the appropriations process. The budget process stalled because the other body did not adopt a budget resolution. The House did. But because both Houses did not, we had no opportunity to come to conference and reach the same 302(a) number, the 302(a) number being the top number that we would both use in our appropriations process. Anyway, despite all of that, we continued to produce bills, and we have a number of bills in the queue ready to go when we are given the approval to bring them to the House floor. I will comment again that without a common 302(a) number, the top number, it is nearly impossible to have a common 302(b) number for the respective subcommittees of the House and the Senate appropriations committees. It is unfortunate that this is the case, because one of the fundamental responsibilities of Congress is the power of the purse. I emphasis ``responsibility.'' The guiding principles of checks and balances that the founders of our great Nation embodied in our Constitution is lost when the Congress does not complete its work with regard to government spending. If I might indulge my colleagues in the House for just a moment by reading from Article I of the Constitution, it very simply says, ``No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular statement and account of the receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from time to time.'' That is in our Constitution. Unless we do this, we are failing to uphold our basic constitutional responsibilities. It is unfortunate that our budget process broke down at a critical time for our country when we are currently at war against terror and when the security of our homeland is at risk. I do not believe the people who wrote the Budget Act ever intended that budget debates would get in the way of our national security interests. The House has passed five of the 13 appropriations bills. We are currently in conference with the Senate on two of those bills, the defense and military construction bills. We are waiting to appoint conferees on the legislative branch bill. The Committee on Appropriations has reported four other bills that are awaiting floor action, and that is the appropriations bill for agriculture, energy and water, foreign operations and the District of Columbia. On Tuesday of next week we will conclude consideration of the transportation appropriations bill, and next week we also plan to report the VA-HUD bill from the Committee on Appropriations. But until we get to the point where we can develop a common set of numbers between the House and the Senate for us to work with, it is important that the operations of our government agencies continue without any disruption, and that is what this legislation is about today. Let me briefly describe the terms and conditions of the CR. It will continue all ongoing activities at current rates, including supplementals, under the same terms and conditions as fiscal year 2002. We have codified the term ``rate for operations not exceeding the current rate'' as defined in OMB Bulletin No. 01-10. As in past CRs, it does not allow new starts, and it allows for adjustment for one-time expenditures that occurred in fiscal year 2002. It restricts obligations on high initial spend-out programs so the annualized funding levels in this bill will not impinge on our final budget deliberations. It includes eight funding or authorizing anomalies, of which six allow for the continuation of existing programs and fee collections that would otherwise expire. The remaining two provisions will ensure that executive agencies use the Government Printing Office when procuring government printing, as specified under current law and to ensure that funding for all of the uniformed services to support the accrual contribution for Medicare-eligible retiree health care is available. After some of the discussion, Mr. Speaker, this may come as a surprise to some, but I believe the CR is noncontroversial, and I urge the House to move this legislation to the Senate quickly so that our government will continue to operate smoothly and efficiently and so that we can continue our work to finish our regular appropriations bills when we are able to do that. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to the previous order of the House, I call up the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 111) making continuing appropriations for the fiscal year 2003, and for other purposes.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. I would like to respond in kind to my friend from Iowa, the chairman of the Committee on the Budget.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. If the gentleman will yield further, the gentleman's estimate is correct only if you assume that one-time spending continues. No one else has included such items in their estimates, including OMB. So it is my intent that any CR provide the most limited funding possible under a current rate. If the defense and military construction bills are enacted and the 11 remaining bills are funded at a current rate and OMB exercises its authority as it has in the past to not extend one-time funding, the total annualized funding under a CR would be below $749 billion. I would also remind the House that it is imperative that we pass the remaining fiscal year 2003 bills.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. If the gentleman will yield further, it is not my intention that any true one-time nonrecurring expenditures from last year's supplementals be included in the base of any continuing resolution. It is my understanding that under any short-term CR, the Office of Management and Budget can avoid funding one-time items.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. The gentleman is correct. The bill carries forward all amounts that were appropriated in fiscal year 2002, including amounts that were designated as an emergency. However, as in all previous continuing resolutions, the Office of Management and Budget has the flexibility under this CR to not extend funding for one- time items.

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