C. Young

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, the CR before us now should not require much debate, since we did have a very lively debate on the rule on the very same subject, but I am sure the same subjects will be discussed again. But this does extend the funding for the fiscal year until next Wednesday. It is essential to pass this CR because, although the House has completed its part of the appropriations process quite a long time ago, the part of the process requiring the other body and the administration has not been completed yet, although we are getting very close. We moved out two more bills today, as my colleagues will remember. This CR does two things: One, it extends the date from midnight tomorrow night until midnight Wednesday night of next week. In addition, because we are reaching the end of the month, it is necessary that we make provision for funding authority for checks that go out automatically every month to those who are in entitlement programs. The agencies involved need to have the authority to go ahead and print the checks, mail the checks, and have them in the mail so that they arrive by the first of the month. Those are the two things this continuing resolution does. Hopefully, this is the last one we will have to do. One of the outstanding bills is the bill from Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. We are having another meeting this afternoon on this bill with the White House and with the Republican and Democratic Members representing the House and the Senate, and we hope to finalize those agreements today. The District of Columbia bill, as most Members know, is ready to file, however, it is being held because it may be needed as a vehicle for another appropriations bill that our colleagues in the other body have not passed yet. So there is somewhat of a delay there. It is not a delay of the making of the House of Representatives or the House appropriators. And I want to repeat, Mr. Speaker, as I have said so many times, that the House Committee on Appropriations completed its work very early in the year. We had all 13 of our appropriation bills through the House, with the last one on the floor in July before the August recess. That bill was then withdrawn from consideration and put off, but the appropriators were ready to move. Anyway, we are near the end. It was theoretically possible that we could have done what the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Moakley) wanted and made this CR go to midnight on Monday night. Because it runs until Wednesday, he opposed the previous question so that he could offer an amendment to take us to midnight Monday. But, Mr. Speaker, tomorrow the House will not be in session out of respect for the Governor of Missouri who was, along with his son, unfortunately killed in a tragic airplane crash. We respect that and the fact that many of our Members will be traveling to Missouri for that funeral tomorrow. So there will be no business here tomorrow. Saturday and Sunday the House will not meet for recorded votes. Monday the House will not be in for recorded votes. And so, if we go to the policy of having CR's one day at a time, that is a big mistake, Mr. Speaker. If we do that, I can guarantee we will be here until Christmas because it will take all day long to do each CR, and we will not get any other work done. So we need to get this CR passed and then the appropriators will continue the meetings with the White House. And if we can reach the agreements that we think we will in the next few days, we will have this business completed by midnight Wednesday next. Mr. Speaker, I ask for support of the CR. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time. Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of the time. Mr. Speaker, I am really interested in this lengthy debate about all kinds of things other than the CR. I appreciate the support that has been indicated for passage of the CR because we need to do this. It will give us the additional time that we need to complete the work. But I want to remind my colleagues, who are my friends, Mr. Speaker, the House did its job. Three months ago we completed our work on the appropriations bills. But that is only part of the process. The other part of the process is reconciling the differences between the House and the Senate. That is the constitutional system. And then we have to reconcile the differences between the Congress and the President. Now, we have seen the President sign some of our appropriations bills and we have seen him veto an appropriations bill, and we worked with the administration closely to try to repair that bill to the point that he would be willing to sign it. And I think in a matter of several days that will happen and we will have the opportunity to pass that legislative package back to the President. The minority party and the majority party at the Member level and the staff level have worked together. They have been at the table at the staff level and Member level on all of these issues between our body and the other body and including the White House. We had representatives from the Clinton-Gore administration sitting with us to try to work out the differences. And, Mr. Speaker, there have been many differences. But slow but sure, we are resolving those differences. But I am not going to take the time to respond to all of the political statements that we have heard today because I listened to the very distinguished minority leader, the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Gephardt), stand there in the well and appeal for a bipartisan, work- together attitude. Well, I am all for that. And I think that the gentleman who just spoke would admit that my entire effort here as chairman is to work together with both parties to get the best product that we can get. So I want to stick with the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Gephardt). I am not going to become partisan. I am not going to be political. I am just going to say we need to pass this CR today and we need to get serious about resolving these differences that exist between the Congress and the President. And then I would like to close on this thought, Mr. Speaker: It is not that I do not enjoy a good political debate, because I do. I really like politics. And outside of the House, where we are here to do the people's business, people above politics, back in the campaigns I really enjoy the political debate and the political exchanges. But I am in a different mood today. Because early today, America came under attack from terrorists. An American naval ship was attacked by a suicide mission that blew a gaping hole in the side of the USS Cole, an Arleigh Burke class destroyer. It flooded the main engine room. At least four American sailors lost their lives. There are 12 additional sailors missing or unaccounted for, and there are more than 30 wounded. Some of them are critically wounded. America came under attack from terrorists. It is time that we try to put aside as much of the partisan politics as we can and come together recognizing that America, Republicans and Democrats and Independents and whatever the parties might be, America came under attack today and we cannot stand for that. We have got to make it known to the world that we are not going to allow our country, our military, our sailors who are on board those ships to come under attack and not respond. And so, that is my mood today, Mr. Speaker. I want to get this CR out of here so that we can get to the people's business.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. (Mr. YOUNG of Florida asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

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

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I thank the gentleman for his comments. And I know what is in his heart. The gentleman and I have been friends for a long time and have had some differences but a lot of agreements. I appreciate the comments that he just made. Because when America comes under attack, it is time for all of us to come together to recognize that attack and do what has to be done. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 627, I call up the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 111) 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, the continuing resolution before us is the third one for this fiscal year. It would continue the original CR until October 20. I might say and remind my colleagues that the House has passed all of the appropriations bills earlier this year, but because of conference meetings that needed to be taken care of and meetings with the White House, we have not concluded that business. However, I am also happy to report that there is considerable movement, I believe, in the other body that we will see today, and hopefully we will be able to conclude this appropriations business next week in the House and in the other body. So I merely ask the support of the Members to conclude this CR today so we can pass it on to the Senate and then get about our business. 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 House Joint Resolution 111, and that I may include tabular and extraneous material.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that when the House adjourns today, it adjourn to meet at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 10, 2000.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf), chairman of the Subcommittee on Transportation for yielding the time to me, and I want to compliment him for working through a difficult conference and producing what I think is a really fine bill. It meets the needs of America. There are more needs that need to be met, but this bill goes right directly to the heart of some of the hot transportation problems, whether it is surface transportation or whether it is air transportation. Are there negatives? Are there things you could look for to be against? Of course. In any bill that comes before this House, if my colleagues want to find something to be against, they can find something to be against. There are 435 of us here. I would suspect that there are a lot more than 3 or 4 ideas or positions on any issue. But I want to specifically compliment the gentleman from Virginia (Chairman Wolf) and the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Sabo), the ranking member of the subcommittee. The gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf) mentioned our staff, John Blazey, Rich Efford, Stephie Gupta and the other members of the staff. These people are professionals. They know what the needs are, and they do the best they can to give us advice so that we can utilize the money available to meet those needs. I wanted to talk specifically for just a few minutes today about the United States Coast Guard. There are many who believe that the United States Coast Guard, because they are a uniform service, because they carry guns, because they enforce laws, because they go to war when America go goes to war or to deployment, as they did in Kosovo or as they did in Bosnia, they are part of the national defense system and get funded through the Defense appropriations bill. That is not the case. The United States Coast Guard is funded in this bill on transportation. I represent a county in Florida where we are very fortunate to have three Coast Guard stations in that county, Pinellas County, Florida. We have the major Coast Guard air station for the entire system. We also have a major sea station, and we have a fast boat station for quick access to the Gulf of Mexico to take care of close in problems with people that are boating or fishing or whatever and need the service of the Coast Guard. But the Coast Guard is called upon to be deployed 365 days a year; and for years, the Coast Guard had to squeeze their budget, really squeeze to get by, to keep their operational activities going. I would like to say to the gentleman from Virginia (Chairman Wolf), I thank him so much. In this bill, the gentleman has really met the needs of the United States Coast Guard. I believe that Commandant Loy, who is an outstanding leader, would say to the gentleman, as he has to me, and he probably has to the gentleman, that this bill really makes them feel comfortable. If my colleagues want to not vote for this bill for any reason like they did not get a new bridge in their districts, or did not get some new highway money, or did not get some aviation assets in this bill, think of the United States Coast Guard. They not only protect our coast and our harbors, but they risk their own lives in search and rescue missions, where they go into weather situations that other people are running from to save lives and to save property. In the interdiction of drugs, the United States Coast Guard has an outstanding record. These are the drugs that are trying to be brought into the United States to seriously affect people of this great country, and the Coast Guard just does a great job of preventing this. As I said, they are deployed every day. They risk their lives every day. And I say to the gentleman from Virginia (Chairman Wolf) and to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Sabo), the ranking member and to the staff of this subcommittee, I just want to say as one Member who has a personal experience with the Coast Guard, my colleagues have done a good job for the United States Coast Guard. I thank my colleagues for that. I appreciate that, and I will enthusiastically support this bill.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise to not disagree with my friend, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey). This is not the normal procedure. But I do rise to tell the Members of the House that no Member of the House is disadvantaged by using this procedure. The conference report on H.R. 4475, and the new bill that is numbered H.R. 5394, are identical. The language of the new bill has been available to the Members at the same time as the conference report on H.R. 4475 because it is printed in the statement of the managers. So no Member of the House has been disadvantaged. As the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) has pointed out, this was done to accommodate the other body. Whether that is the best procedure or not, it has been done before, but it is not really the regular order. The main issue here is Members of the House have not been disadvantaged by this procedure. The words in the copy of the bill in the statement of the managers on the conference report and the new bill are identical and they have been available to the House Members. Members are not disadvantaged because of timing and thus disadvantaged because of the language in the introduced bill. So I think we ought to go ahead and pass this rule, and then I think we ought to go ahead and pass this conference report. As usual, as many Members often say, it is not perfect. There are things in there Members can be opposed to, but there are a lot of good things in there. This conference agreement provides for the highway needs and the transportation needs of the United States of America. And I believe, Mr. Speaker, that we ought to get on with business.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the business in order under the Calendar Wednesday rule be dispensed with on Wednesday next.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I will yield back after I make a closing statement.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the indication of support for the CR. The gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) is exactly right. We have to do this from the institutional standpoint. So we are going to pass this CR today. I listened to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), one of the more articulate members of this Congress. I would have to say that I agree with an awful lot of what he said. Our budget process is less than perfect. But I want to make sure that everybody understands that the budget process is just one piece of the process. The appropriations process is something entirely different, although it might seem to some that they are both one and the same; but they are not. But, unfortunately, the appropriations process becomes captive to the budget process on occasion, and we are not the masters of our own destiny sometimes when it comes to the appropriations process. But we have done a good job in the House. The House can be proud of the fact that, yes, in fact we did pass all of our bills, and we passed them fairly early. In fact, all 13 bills were passed before the end of July, except for D.C., The D.C. bill was actually on the floor in July but was pulled off the floor for some other measure that apparently had more importance at one point or another. Also, we have passed, in terms of conference reports, through the House the Defense conference report, the Military Construction conference report, the Energy and Water conference report, the Treasury-Postal conference report, the Legislative Branch conference report, and the Interior conference report, which we passed just a short time ago today. We have completed the conference on the Transportation appropriations bill this morning. At 4 o'clock this afternoon, we will convene a conference meeting on the Agricultural appropriations bill. So we are moving on our responsibility, but we, in the House, are only one-third of the players. The other body is a player and the President of the United States is a player. When it gets to the point that bills are sent to the President, and we do not know what he is going to do on some of these bills, he becomes as powerful as two- thirds of this House and two-thirds of the Senate. Because if he vetoes one of our bills, it takes two-thirds of both Houses to override the veto. So we try to work together. I think what we saw earlier today on the Interior appropriations bill was an indication of how, if we work together, both sides, the majority, the minority, understanding that there are strong differences, to resolve those differences, it is amazing what we can accomplish. I am really proud of the House for the strong vote that we received for the Interior bill just a short time ago. So Mr. Speaker, it is essential that we pass this CR today, and I again appreciate those statements from the minority, from the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey), recognizing that it is important to pass the CR today that would keep the government operating to the 14th of October. Hopefully by then we will have much more positive and constructive news to report. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, except to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, the second CR which is before us today merely extends the date of the original CR from October 6, 2000 through October 14, 2000. We need to do this because, although the House has passed all 13 bills, and as of a few minutes ago we now passed 6 of the conference reports, there are several that still have not passed, and we need to get those done. We are moving along fairly well. We finished the conference report on the Transportation bill this morning. We will file that this afternoon and hopefully have it on the floor tomorrow. Also we are scheduled to meet in conference on the Agricultural appropriations bill this afternoon, and we would hope that we can finish that tonight and have it ready for consideration by the House before the week is over. We are moving, but there are still a few outstanding issues that need to be resolved, most of which, by the way, Mr. Speaker, are not really appropriations items, but they have to do with other items that have been placed upon these bills. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 604, I call up the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 110) 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. 110 and that I may include tabular and extraneous material.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me the time. I take the time to support the bill and to urge a very strong vote for the bill. But I wanted primarily to applaud the chairman, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Regula), for having led this subcommittee through some very difficult times, and also the ranking member, the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Dicks), and my counterpart on the minority side, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey). When we listen to the debate and understand that this is a very good bipartisan bill, it just proves what can be accomplished when we work together and try to resolve the differences. I would say that when we listen to the debate, some might think this bill breezed through the conference committee with no trouble at all. But Mr. Speaker, this bill had all kinds of problems in conference. The debates were vigorous, the arguments were pretty powerful at times, but cooler heads prevailed. The issues were resolved in a most positive way. So I really want to applaud especially the chairman, who led this effort. I certainly would be one who would be regretting strongly if in fact he had to step down as chairman because of the term limits requirements, but that will be whatever it will be. The managers have done a really good job. They have brought to us today a bill that we can all support and that we can all go home and brag about, if Members feel like bragging, because this is a good bill. It does a good job for the people, and it is one the Congress can be very proud of.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I would respond to the gentlewoman that, yes, we would intend to meet in conference, and to suggest that we have not done that is erroneous. We have a very intense conference meeting underway right now on one of the other conference reports. I have spent, as have many of our colleagues on both sides of the aisle, many, many hours in conference with the other body, and, in fact, with representatives of the White House, trying to iron out the differences between the House bills, the Senate bills and the position of the administration. So the truth is, we have spent a massive amount of time in conference trying to resolve these differences. I understand that the agriculture bill is an extremely important measure and there are some strong differences between the House and the Senate. They will have to be worked out, and I would suggest to the gentlewoman that they will be worked out in a regular conference.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. I yield to the gentlewoman from Ohio.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I would respond to the gentlewoman by saying that is why we do not object to this motion to instruct.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank the very distinguished gentleman from California (Mr. Packard), chairman of the subcommittee, for yielding me this time. I wanted to say to the gentleman, and I know it is not appropriate to direct a comment directly from one Member to another without going through the Chair, so, Mr. Speaker, let me say to the gentleman from California through the Speaker that he has been an outstanding member of the Committee on Appropriations, an outstanding Member of the House of Representatives, and he has been a dynamic chairman on the subcommittees on which he has chaired over the last 6 years. I would say that one way that a chairman of a committee can be successful in getting the job done is to have outstanding subcommittee chairmen. The gentleman from California (Mr. Packard) certainly fits that bill. He is, and has been, an outstanding subcommittee chairman. Also, he has been a very good friend to this chairman, and I think to most everybody in this House Chamber. So, Mr. Speaker, I want the gentleman to know how much we are going to miss him, and I regret his decision to retire voluntarily from the United States Congress. Mr. Speaker, I want to compliment the gentleman from California (Chairman Packard) and also the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Visclosky), the ranking minority member, for having brought this bill to the floor. It has not been an easy task. There have been many, many differences on this bill. There are many Members who have requests for projects in the bill that did not make it. They did not make it, not because they were not important projects, not because they were not necessary, but because we were trying to be as fiscally conservative as we could possibly be. I know that there are several Members who are looking for another opportunity to have their projects considered. But the idea that the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) spoke to just a moment ago, that he would not support this bill because he was not sure what would be done in some other bill, well, that is not the way the process works. Mr. Speaker, we have 13 separate bills. I would say to and remind my colleagues that the House of Representatives has passed all 13 of our bills. And I cannot say that often enough. And we passed them at lower spending levels than the White House or many Members of the minority side wanted. If my colleagues recall, we spent hour after hour, day after day on some of these bills dealing with amendments to add more billions of dollars, and we fought off successfully most of those amendments, realizing that there was only a certain amount of money that we ought to spend. Just because there is a $230 billion surplus out there, we do not have to spend it all. In our homes, in our personal lives, in our businesses, and in our government, at a time of great prosperity, we pay down some of our bills that have been haunting us for months or years before. That is one of the things that we are committed to doing in this Congress, pay down some of those debts. Mr. Speaker, we have paid in the last 2 years nearly half a trillion dollars on the public debt that this Nation owed. That is good news, and it is good news for this reason, Mr. Speaker: it is good news because we have had to pay a substantial interest payment on the national debt. $250 billion is a good round figure to estimate what the interest payment on the national debt was last year and would be this year. Can my colleagues imagine how many schools we could build? School construction is a big issue. How many schools could we build with $250 billion that we are now paying out as interest on the national debt? How many highways could we build or bridges could we build? How much more advantage could we give to our veteran population in medical care? In some areas veterans have to wait in line to get their medical care because the demand is greater than the supply available. So, it is important that we have fought off some of these big spending amendments. I found it really ironic yesterday when I read a statement by the President of the United States scolding Congress for being a ``big spending Congress.'' Well, up until just the last couple of weeks, he was scolding us for not providing all of the money that he wanted for all of his programs. He cannot have it both ways. There he goes again. On the one hand he is scolding us for not spending enough; on the other hand he scolds us for spending too much.