C. Young

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute. Mr. Speaker, I want to say to the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller), who just left the well, that we are doing 1-day CRs because the President of the United States has told us that he would not sign anything other than a 1-day CR; so that is their decision. We understand the power of the Presidency, and so we are prepared to accommodate that. Mr. Speaker, I yield 6 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Cunningham), a member of the Committee on Appropriations.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to the provisions of House Resolution 646, I call up the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 117) 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 myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I would just point out that this is another one of those 1-day continuing resolutions. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding. I suspect maybe the gentleman might explain to our colleagues why it is that we have to do a 1-day CR today, and another 1-day CR Saturday, and another 1-day CR Sunday, and another 1-day CR Monday. And I am happy to hear the response from the other side, because as the majority leader has said, the appropriators will be meeting through the weekend, as we have been for nearly a month, on this last remaining bill with the White House, and we are going around in circles. If they cannot have it their way, they do not want it any way. But I have a friendly question for both sides. Since the majority leader and the House and I confirm we will be working through the weekend, is it okay, based on some of the debate that we have heard so far in the last couple of weeks, is it okay if we work in the dark of night? Because it is going to take more than the daylight hours to get this done. And if it does, my Democrat colleagues should not criticize us next week for having made decisions in the dark of night.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

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

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. I did not have much of a first kick at the cat because there was so much noise in here I could not even hear myself and I was hoping the gentleman would conclude his remarks during that same period and then nobody would know what we said and we could pass this CR and get out of here.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield, I would like to yield myself 1 minute and then yield back my time if the gentleman is prepared to yield back his time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to the provisions of House Resolution 646, I call up the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 116) making further continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2001, 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, this is a 1-day continuing resolution that would take us until midnight tomorrow night as we attempt to conclude the appropriations business. Later this afternoon we will take up the Commerce, Justice, District of Columbia appropriations conference report. That leaves only one outstanding to be completed, and we hope to do that just as quickly as we can get together with our representatives from the President's office to come to some agreement. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I would just ask the Members to vote for this CR and let us get about the rest of the business for today. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman is ready to yield back, I am ready to yield back.

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. 116.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) and I have agreed with each other many times that the budget process is far from perfect. We attempted to make some changes earlier this year, but we were not successful with legislation that would have made some changes. But he and I do not disagree on that. But the point is, in order for the Senate to continue to proceed with consideration of further appropriations bills, they need this budget cap raised. Because under their rules, they have to do this. In the House, we do not have to. This does not affect the House. We have already taken care of that problem in our House. But in the other body, they need to do this and they need a 60-Member vote in order to accomplish it. So if we do not do it on this bill, we are going to have to do it on the next bill, which hopefully we will have on the floor tomorrow if a couple of unsettled issues are settled, and that is the Commerce Justice bill, that would be applied to another bill. The Commerce Justice bill the Senate has not passed. So it has got to be connected to another bill, which we expect to be the District of Columbia appropriations bill, which both Houses have passed. So we really need to do this. It is not a matter of whether one likes it or whether one does not like it. But if we are going to conclude our work, not in the House, but if we are going to conclude our work in the other body, we have to do this. So we might as well do it now, get it over with, and get on about our business. Hopefully, before the week is over, we will conclude the consideration of the District of Columbia and Commerce State Justice bill and then the Health and Education bill hopefully before the week is over. But we need to move this bill out of the way so we can make room on our schedule for the next two vehicles. Then, Mr. Speaker, the appropriations process will have been completed. It has been delayed this year for a number of reasons. I will not take the time to express my opinion as to why the delays took place, but there have been delays, many of which were not under the jurisdiction of the Committee on Appropriations. But, nevertheless, there have been delays. We need to move this rule today. We need to move this bill today. Then we have two other vehicles. Then our colleagues will be able to return to their districts and spend a few days on the campaign trail.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank my distinguished chairman for yielding me time. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman might find this somewhat of a surprise when I rise in support of his bill, because the gentleman has known for years that I was one of the leading opponents of our foreign aid programs. I did so because I did not think they worked. I did not think that the claims of helping poor people were actually authentic. I would be here on the floor, and I had the privilege of being the ranking member on this subcommittee some years ago, and I remember being berated by others who would say this money is for the poorest of the poor. Well, I am willing to help the poorest of the poor, but in those days the money was not going to help the poor, it was going to help the people who ran the countries where the poorest of the poor lived. Under the dynamic leadership of the gentleman from Alabama (Chairman Callahan), things have changed. Reforms have been put into effect by his leadership that make it possible for me to stand here and support this bill. The gentleman has done a good job in facing up to the tough issues in the foreign workplace. He has dealt with foreign leaders in a very professional and dignified, but tough, way. I also want to compliment the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi). She has been very aggressive in making her own viewpoint known, but she has cooperated completely with the gentleman from Alabama (Chairman Callahan). They have been a good team. I would say as an aside, Mr. Speaker, that I really wish that we did not have the rule that the gentleman from Alabama (Chairman Callahan) could not continue to be chairman of this subcommittee, but under the term limits that we imposed on ourselves for committee chairmen and subcommittee chairmen, the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Callahan) has to give up the leadership of this subcommittee. I think that is a mistake. I think the Congress will be worse off because of that, because of the ability that he has to deal with these international issues and to deal with international leaders, and also because of his ability in a no- nonsense way to bring together many divergent viewpoints that are held by many of our Members. So the gentleman has done a really good job, and I just want to commend the gentleman as strongly as I possibly can for the good job that he has done, and tell him that I will continue to seek a way to keep him as chairman of the subcommittee when the time comes. This is a good bill, Mr. Speaker. He and the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi) have done a really good job in identifying real needs and putting in safeguards that, in fact, will guarantee for the most part that the poorest of the poor that need the help are going to get the help. Is it a perfect bill? Is it one that I read every word of it and read every section and say, gee, I agree with everything? No. To the contrary, there are still some things in this bill that I would prefer not be here. But, for the most part, I do agree with what is in the bill. Again, I commend the gentleman from Alabama (Chairman Callahan) and the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi) for the good job they have done. I hope we can proceed to complete that action on this bill today, because we have two other conference reports that we need to get to quickly so the House and the Congress can complete its appropriations mission for this year.

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

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Florida for yielding me the time. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to say that I intend to vote for the previous question, and I intend to vote for the rule. This rule is basically the same rule that we have adopted for every appropriations bill. There is nothing unusual in the rule. So we should do what we have done in all other instances. We ought to pass the rule so that we can get about the consideration of the bill on Foreign Operations. On the previous question, the issue that the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) has indicated he will oppose the previous question so that he can offer an amendment to the rule which would provide a vehicle for us to eliminate the language in the bill relative to the budget caps. Now, I do not have a strong disagreement with the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) on the budget caps, because I think he and I both agreed earlier in the year that the budget resolution was not realistic, that it did not really provide for the priorities of the Congress and for the priorities of the President of the United States. But, nevertheless, the Congress adopted a budget resolution at a specific number. Well, obviously, as we took up the bills and as we passed it through the House, which we have passed all of them through the House, Mr. Speaker, and I cannot say that often enough, we have passed all those bills through the House, but then we have to negotiate with our colleagues in the other body because their priorities very often are different than our priorities. Once we resolve that, then we have priorities from the President of the United States whose priorities are different. So we have one overall number, but three sets of priorities; and they do not all fit into that over-all number. So the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) and I do not disagree on that. We have made that fairly clear throughout the year. So now we come to the point of getting real. It has been suggested on several occasions in the debates before that these budget numbers are not real. Well, now we are at the point where we are getting real because the appropriations bills have all passed the House. We bring today the next, after the Foreign Operations bill today, there are only two other appropriations vehicles out there for us to take up and consider, pass and send to the President. So we are at crunch time. A lot of those issues were real thorny and controversial, most of which have nothing at all to do with appropriations, most of which are something not related at all to appropriations, but appropriations bills are being used as vehicle just to deal with these philosophical or these political or these authorizing-type issues. As the House passed the bills, we knew that we would be exceeding the caps. So in the House on the appropriation bills, we waived the caps. But this provision from this bill that the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) objects to, it is a provision that would apply to the Senate. The other body needs this language because they have advised us that, without increasing the budget number, the caps, that they would not be able to consider any further appropriations bills.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Pursuant to the rule just adopted, I call up the joint resolution (H. J. Res. 115) 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 myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, H.J. Res. 115 is a continuing resolution, and it continues the funding of our Government for one day until midnight tomorrow night. I am not sure that is the smartest way to go. I think that, with the progress that we are making now, that we could probably be finished by Friday or Saturday. I would have preferred to have introduced a resolution to go to at least Saturday. However, the President of the United States has told us that he would only sign CR's for one day at a time. And, of course, that is his prerogative. He is the President and he has the veto pen; and unless we have a two-thirds vote to override him, he prevails. And so, he prevails in this case, and we have a 1-day CR. If we do not finish our business tomorrow, we will have another 1- day CR. Where we are on the progress of our bills is, after having passed the Foreign Operations appropriations conference report today, there are only two outstanding conference reports, one of which we intend to file tonight, that is the District of Columbia appropriations bill along with the Commerce, State, Justice bill. And then the one remaining bill is the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education bill, which we hope to be able to file by tomorrow night and move to consideration of it Friday or Saturday. Then we will have completed our appropriations process. All this CR does is extend the continuation of the Government from midnight tonight to midnight tomorrow night. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Porter), chairman of the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Porter).

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Porter), who is one of the leading experts in this Congress on the issue of education and funding for education.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I just want to say, as good a friendship as I have with my friend the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), I would strongly disagree with the statement that he made that the Republican majority has not done well for education. The gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Porter) pointed out very effectively that we have actually provided more funding this year alone than the President asked for. The only difference is the great debate over who is going to control the funds, who is going to make the decision on what the needs are, back in my congressional district or in his congressional district, a bureaucrat in Washington, or the locally elected school board back home in our districts. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from California (Mr. Cunningham), a member of the Committee on Appropriations.

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

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I had been prepared to just yield back my time early on during this debate, because the issue before us is simply a 1-day extension of the continuing resolution, but so many things have been developed during this debate that I feel tempted to respond to each and every one of them, but I am not going to do that. But I feel tempted. I understand the position of the minority. I served in the minority for a lot of years, as did many of my colleagues on this side of the aisle. We were not all here for 40 years, but for those who have been here nearly that long, we served in the minority almost the whole time we have been here, so we understand the frustrations. But when we became the majority party and I became chairman of one of our subcommittees on appropriations, I was determined that the minority would have access to every bit of information, would have the opportunity to have input on every subject coming before that subcommittee, and I think any member of that subcommittee on either side would concede that and confirm the fact that that is how we function. When I became chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, one of the first instructions I laid down to the Members and the staff that the minority would be included in all of our deliberations, and I believe they would admit to that at the staff level and the Member level. We have met with each other off and on most of the year, and then as we got toward the end of the process, we began meeting with the President's representatives, and both parties were involved in all of those meetings. Even at that we understand the frustration of the minority. We tried to be as responsible as we could and as generous as we could in trying to reach consensus and trying to reach bipartisan agreements. And we have reached a lot of bipartisan agreements. But there is a lot of political rhetoric occurring now, because we are rapidly approaching Election Day. One of the things that got my attention was the gentleman from Wisconsin's statement that the Republicans shut down the government. Well, that conclusion is the result of masterful and effective spin- mastering. The Republicans did not shut down the government; the Republicans passed the appropriations bills, they sent them to the Clinton-Gore administration, they vetoed them, and when they vetoed them, the government shut down for a couple of days. The Republicans sent the appropriations bills to the President. We did our job. He vetoed them. Until we were able to come back and rewrite the bills, the government was closed for a short period of time. Now, there are two major issues that have been developed here today. There are those who spoke and complained that the budget really was not high enough, that we were not doing enough spending. I say to those people who believe that, they are true to their conviction. They really believe that there should be more government spending, that there should be more government involvement. And while I might disagree with them, I do not question their sincerity, and I do not question their motivation for standing for what they believe. But there are others who say, well, we are spending too much. Mr. Speaker, my colleagues will remember, as I remember, that all through this appropriations process we spent hour after hour, day after day, week after week on appropriations bills dealing with amendments from the minority side to increase spending, to increase the amount of money in those appropriations bills. Yet some of the people, not all, but some of the Members on that side who voted for all of those amendments now complain that we are spending too much money. We really cannot have it both ways. We cannot vote for every amendment to increase and vote against any amendment that would reduce and still stand up and say, with a clear conscience, we spent too much money. There is another reason that it has taken some time to conclude this process. This is because we have included all sides, Republicans and Democrats in the House and in the Senate, and the White House. There is also another reason. We had a few years ago a real disaster, in my opinion. Under our watch, we had an omnibus bill that included about eight appropriations bills. We put all of those eight bills together, and the leadership sat down with the White House and we negotiated them. We came out with an omnibus appropriations bill. I do not think many people today still know what was in that bill. We have not done that this year. We have resisted that. We have gone one bill at a time. The House has had an ample opportunity to deal with every bill specifically and independently, and we passed all 13 of our bills through the House early in the process. Now, we slowed down a little when the other body did not get around to taking up some of their bills; but nevertheless, we found a way to deal with that, and we attached one of the bills they had not passed to one of the bills that we had passed. And probably tomorrow, we will do the same thing again. Mr. Speaker, there is no omnibus appropriations bill being developed this year. We in the House have dealt with each and every one of the bills. That takes a little time, because instead of having one large negotiation taking place, we had 13 small negotiations that, by the way, all developed into pretty big ones. So it took a little more time. Anyway, Mr. Speaker, we are not here to campaign. The political rhetoric that we hear from time to time on the floor, especially on appropriations bills, is not what we are here for. We are here to do the people's business. The campaigning should be on the campaign trail. I listened to the minority leader last week make what I thought was an excellent speech where he appealed to us and said, let us work together, let us be bipartisan, let us do the best we can to get our job done for what is best for the American people. I liked that speech and I complimented him right after he made the speech on the floor, in public. But then so much campaign rhetoric followed. I know that he was sincere, but I just believe that some of the people on his side were not listening to his appeal. Mr. Speaker, we are here to deal with a 1-day continuing resolution. I just ask that the Members vote for this CR so we can get about the rest of our business today and the rest of the week. Mr. Speaker, I yield back 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. 115 and that I may include tabular and extraneous material.