C. Young

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume merely to point out that this is a 1-day continuing resolution. In addition to having this resolution before the House, after the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) makes his opening statement, I will be asking unanimous consent to consider an amendment that I have at the desk. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the amendment that I have placed at the desk be considered adopted.

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

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, the amount of $7,100,000 was in the Treasury-Postal bill for the purpose of the transitioning to a new administration. $5.27 million was for the implementation of the transition of the new administration, the new President. $1.83 million was for the incumbent President to exit the White House and to exit the administration. Since that bill was vetoed that money is not available. This amendment authorizes the same amount of money that was in the Treasury- Postal bill. It is important that we do this because the new administration has to begin work immediately after the election by preparing for the transition, interviewing potential appointments and staffers. There is travel involved. There is vetting of major appointments. This begins the day after election day, so it is important that we do this.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to the provisions of House Resolution 662, I call up the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 123) making further continuing appropriations for the fiscal year 2001, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

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. 123 and that I mayNOTICE--OCTOBER 23, 2000 A final issue of the Congressional Record for the 106th Congress, 2d Session, will be published on November 29, 2000, in order to permit Members to revise and extend their remarks. All material for insertion must be signed by the Member and delivered to the respective offices of the Official Reporters of Debates (Room HT-60 or S-123 of the Capitol), Monday through Friday, between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. through November 28. The final issue will be dated November 29, 2000, and will be delivered on Friday, December 1, 2000. None of the material printed in the final issue of the Congressional Record may contain subject matter, or relate to any event that occurred after the sine die date. Senators' statements should also be submitted electronically, either on a disk to accompany the signed statement, or by e-mail to the Official Reporters of Debates at ``Records@Reporters''. Members of the House of Representatives' statements may also be submitted electronically by e-mail, to accompany the signed statement, and formatted according to the instructions for the Extensions of Remarks template at http://clerkhouse.house.gov. The Official Reporters will transmit to GPO the template formatted electronic file only after receipt of, and authentication with, the hard copy, signed manuscript. Deliver statements to the Official Reporters in Room HT-60. Members of Congress desiring to purchase reprints of material submitted for inclusion in the Congressional Record may do so by contacting the Congressional Printing Management Division, at the Government Printing Office, on 512-0224, between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. daily. By order of the Joint Committee on Printing. WILLIAM M. THOMAS, Chairman. include tabular and extraneous material.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, with all of the rhetoric we have heard here this morning, the truth of the matter is that it all revolved around one issue. That is the issue of the language trying to comply with the agreement that we reached early Monday morning, on the issue of the language relative to ergonomics. Now, the only reference in that negotiating session to having checked with a lawyer is from the Office of Management and Budget. They are representing the President, who suggested that he had checked with his lawyers and that they decided that the language actually did what the agreement supposedly did.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I want to say to my friend who just spoke in the well in reference to his statement that the majority party wants to get out of town, well, we would all like to get home. But I want him to know and I want everybody to know we are here for the long haul, we are here to get the job done, we are here to do the people's business however long it takes. And these 1-day CRs, one after the other after the other after the other, use up a lot of time. We could be productive in other ways. We are not anxious to get out of town and leave the business undone. We are anxious to get out of town when the business is complete, and we are not going until we are finished and we have done it in a responsible way. Now, the gentleman has made a substantial case about this agreement on ergonomics. I want to remind the Members what I have reminded them of before when the gentleman makes that argument. We reached an agreement. We started Sunday about 4 o'clock and we finally ended up about 1 o'clock Monday morning. The gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) was there and I was there, Senator Stevens and Senator Byrd were there. Senator Harkin was there. Jack Lew from the White House was there. We negotiated in good faith and we reached an agreement, and we have not gone back on that agreement. Now, the agreement was to allow the new President adequate time to make a decision. We do not know for sure how it is going to go either way regardless of which Presidential candidate is elected. But that was the agreement we reached, and nobody has gone back on that agreement. Here is where the difference is. The difference is the language that was written that was checked by the White House lawyers. I do not know that we left the room. I did not leave the room to consult with any lawyers. But we took the word of the White House that that language did what they said it did. Now, Senator Stevens is a lawyer. The gentleman from Illinois (Chairman Porter), the chairman of the subcommittee, is a lawyer. We wrote the language at least eight or nine times to try to make sure that it did what the agreement said. Now for someone to suggest that we are going back on our agreement just is not accurate. We are not trying to change the agreement with you one iota. All we are trying to do is make sure that the language that is finally written actually does what the agreement was supposed to do. Now, what is wrong with that? That, in my opinion, is being responsible to make sure that our actions and our words are the same. Actions speak louder than words. Actions speak louder than words, and action should at least be the same as the words. That is where we have the disagreement. We are trying to work it out. Mr. Speaker, I yield 6 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from Connecticut (Mrs. Johnson).

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, let me suggest to the gentleman that their own lawyers at the White House either misunderstood or misrepresented. The lawyers from the White House that were checking, because Jack Lew called his lawyers, at least he told us he called his lawyers, and they said, yes, this language does what the agreement says. Now, if their lawyers cannot figure it out, and our lawyers did not figure it out, maybe we ought to take a little bit of time to do it and to do it right. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Gary Miller).

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. I do not know that. I do not know that the Senator checked with his lawyers. I do not know that.

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

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to the provisions of House Resolution 662, I call up the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 122) making further continuing appropriations for the fiscal year 2001, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Kingston), a member of the Committee on Appropriations.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. The gentleman and I, as he knows, while we tend to be good friends and I have every confidence in his trustworthiness, when he tells me something I know that I can believe it, and I think that he feels that he can believe what I say to him, but we have some strong disagreements, general philosophical disagreements. He knows that and I know that. That is why we have the two political parties, rather than just one. But anyway, the deal, as the minority leader referred to it as ``the deal,'' and I refer to it as a conference report, the conference report continues to contain all of the items that the minority leader talked about that were in that deal that were so good that fell apart. They did not fall apart, they are still there. They are still in the package. They are still part of the conference report. Mr. Speaker, I have just 2 minutes left, and I do not know if we are going to have this argument again tomorrow, though we probably will. But something offended me yesterday that I did not really have the time to respond to in the way that I wanted to. That was when one of the speakers on the minority side accused and referred to our leadership as legislative terrorists. I thought about that overnight and I really got upset about that, Mr. Speaker. Our leadership are not legislative terrorists. They are firm, they are strong, they have their commitments, and they have their convictions. I want to tell Members about the Speaker of the House, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hastert). He is a very strong man of great integrity. He leads this House the best that he can, realizing that he has one of the smallest majorities that has ever existed in this House in its entire history. The gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hastert) is not a legislative terrorist, by any means. The gentleman from Illinois has done everything that he could to keep this House together, to keep it moving, to get our job done, while remaining true to the principles upon which the majority of this House was elected. So I did take offense at that. I try to ignore most of the offensive things that I hear in these debates, but I could not let this go without having made some comment about this suggestion that our leaders were legislative terrorists. They are strong and they are determined. They have tremendous conviction. They are committed. They are going to do their job regardless of the accusations and the rhetoric that comes from their opposition. I say amen to that, because that is why we are here. We are here to do a job for the people of America. We are here to put people above politics. We are here to do our job and then go home and do our campaigning on the campaign trail, not in the House of Representatives, where all of the people should be represented here. So Mr. Speaker, I just hope that the House will pass this continuing resolution. I hope that we can find a way to get this business completed without having to spend hours and hours every day just on one more CR because the President of the United States refuses to be realistic and sign more than a 1-day continuing resolution. Mr. Speaker, we are here to cooperate, we are here to serve in a bipartisan fashion, but we are not here to yield or compromise on our principles.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I might have been talking to the gentleman at the time. I did not hear him say that. I did hear the Director of OMB say that he checked with his lawyers and that this was their understanding. Misunderstanding is one thing and misrepresenting is something entirely different. On the issue of ergonomics, just let me suggest one thing. I asked the staff of the Committee to give me a dictionary description of the word ``ergonomics.'' It goes something like this: ``The science of doing the same thing over and over until the simple act of repetition causes bodily harm.'' That is what we have been doing here in the House for the last couple of weeks, over and over again, continuing resolution after continuing resolution, the same arguments over and over again, most of which do not have anything at all to do with this continuing resolution.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 4 minutes. Mr. Speaker, what I am hearing today is a lot of political campaigning. The problem is the minority does not like the majority. We love them in the minority, and we hope that they stay the minority for many, many years. There is a difference between the parties. There is a reason that one party is a majority and the other party is a minority, but here is an interesting point. We have come together. There are arguments about whether the President was in the room or not. He was represented but he was not in the room. He was busy doing other things. We understand that. The President is looking for whatever he is looking for out there around the country, mostly money for campaigns, but let me say what the President thinks about this Congress. Some heard me read this last night. I am going to read it again today, in view of some of the rather strong diatribes that I have heard here. The President said on Monday in his press conference, he said, ``Again we have accomplished so much in this session of Congress in a bipartisan fashion. It has been one of the most productive sessions.'' Now, if only we could get to the bipartisanship that he talks about here. I am glad he feels that way because on the majority side we have tried to be bipartisan. We get really excited when the minority leader comes to the floor and says, come on guys, we have to get together. We have to be bipartisan and get the work done. But speaker after speaker after speaker who followed the minority leader's admonition brought out their vicious partisan attacks on the majority party. Well, Mr. Speaker, we are the majority; and we have made a decision on what we believe is the right thing to do, and we are satisfied that we agreed with President Clinton when he said the era of big government is over, standing right there in the well of the House. The era of big government is over. We are tired of the government being everything. There is a responsible role for the government, but it is not to run everybody's life. Whatever the government does should be done in a responsible fashion, and not one that meets the whims of somebody's political campaign. Political campaigns ought to be back home on the campaign trail, not here in the people's House. It is our job to get the people's work done and put their work ahead of politics. People above politics, and that is what we are going to stand for every day. We are not going to be stampeded by the political rhetoric that comes out of the minority party who is so anxious to become the majority party again. Well, people of America are going to make that decision. They are going to decide whether they want to go back to the old days of decades of deficit spending, interest payments on the national debt that almost exceed the investment in our national defense; whether they want to go back to the days of raiding the Social Security trust fund to spend for their big spending programs. We have stopped that. Our majority party, the Republican Party, has stopped that. We are not spending money out of the Social Security trust fund. We are paying down the debt. We have balanced the budget, and, oh, we had a lot of opposition to what we had to do to accomplish all of these things, but we stood fast. We are going to continue to stand fast for what we believe in, and the ideals that the American people agreed with when they made us the majority party. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to my friend, the gentleman from California (Mr. Thomas), who has an interesting chart that I think will demonstrate this.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time for a closing statement.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, this is another one of those 1-day continuing resolutions. Since the President of the United States refuses to sign more than a 1-day continuing resolution, this is something that we have to do. It is pure and simple. It is no different than what we did yesterday and the day before and the day before and the day before and the day before. Mr. Speaker, as I have said so many times on so many of these CRs that I am basically through with presenting this continuing resolution. I will be prepared to reserve the balance of my time unless there is some reason that I need to respond to a situation that we did not anticipate. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 3 minutes. Mr. Speaker, I would just like Members to know that I have a great respect for the minority leader who just spoke, but some of the things that he said I do not disagree with. I think there is either a misunderstanding about what the situation is, or there is misrepresentation of the situation. Now, the items that the minority leader just talked about that were in this package that we negotiated until the wee hours of Monday morning, the good things that were in that package, they are still there. To try to imply that they are not there is just not accurate, and it is not fair, because the good things that he said were in there are still there. What is the major change? We have gone over it and over it and over it. We will go over it again. The major change was on the ergonomics language. We reached an agreement. We continue to this minute to have that same agreement. The difference is, we are trying to make sure that the language actually does what the agreement says. But as far as the other items that the minority leader said got blown apart, that is not true. They did not get blown apart. They are still in the package. So either it is being misunderstood, or it is being misrepresented. Misunderstanding, we can understand that; but misrepresenting, we are not prepared to accept that.

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

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. 122, and that I might 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 the veto message of the President to the bill H.R. 4516, and that I may include tabular and extraneous material.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. I think I just answered that question. Mr. Speaker, I would suggest that I believe that about as often as the gentleman from Wisconsin does, and I do not think that is news to anybody. Now, Mr. Speaker, we should all be very thankful that this political season is about over, because once the election is behind us, then we are going to find that we can get back to the business of doing the people's business. We will not need to use the floor of the House of Representatives for campaigning. We will put the people above the politics, and that is good. We need to get back to that. Somebody mentioned the other day that this was like a scene from the movie ``Groundhog Day.'' If my colleagues saw the movie ``Groundhog Day,'' Bill Murray is the main character and he is a weather reporter for a Pittsburgh news station, and he travels to Punxsutawney to do a story on Punxsutawney Phil coming out of his cave and giving a prediction on the weather, but something happens, and day after day after day he wakes up to the very same day over and over and over again. But, the way the movie ended, he went on to a new day and continued life after those many, many days of just repeating over and over again, by falling in love, and then he woke up the next day and everything was like it should be. If we can show a little more love and compassion, a little more spirit of determination to work together for the people that we represent, it is amazing how much we could get accomplished here. Just as President Clinton said: ``Again, we have accomplished so much in this session of Congress in a bipartisan fashion. It has been one of the most productive sessions.'' President Clinton. Mr. Speaker, I ask for a ``yes'' vote on the resolution, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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