Making further continuing appropriations for the fiscal year 2004, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

(Mr. FROST asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, here we go again. Another month has passed and this Republican government still refuses to do its most basic job, funding the Federal Government that they control. That is why we are here, once again, to pass yet another short-term continuing resolution to keep Republican incompetence from shutting down the Federal Government.

Mr. Speaker, I do not know why Republicans refuse to do the job taxpayers pay them for, especially while millions of those same taxpayers cannot find jobs on their own. Perhaps they are so busy twisting arms to dismantle Medicare and force seniors into HMOs that they cannot be bothered with deciding how badly to shortchange education in this year's spending bills. Or maybe the White House has been consumed with spending their expensive efforts to rebuild Iraq that they do not have time to worry about America. Who knows. But it is clear that this Republican government has stopped working for the American people.

Mr. Speaker, I do not know if you watched ``West Wing'' last night on television, but actually the subject of the ``West Wing'' program was this exact issue, a continuing resolution. And at that point you had a Republican Congress trying to blame a Democratic President for closing down the government. But here, of course, we have a Republican Congress and a Republican President. So what is going on here? Republican President, Republican Congress, and we still have to have a short-term continuing resolution because those folks cannot do their job.

Just take a look at the record. Today, millions of hard-working Americans no longer share in the prosperity that they enjoyed during the Democratic-led economic boon of the 1990s. In fact, since the Republican Party took over the government nearly 3 years ago, more than 3 million American jobs have been lost in the private sector. Or to put it another way, since George W. Bush got his job, millions of Americans have lost their jobs. That is the worst jobs record of any President since Herbert Hoover in the Great Depression.

Over the same period, Republican fiscal irresponsibility has turned record surpluses into astronomical and out-of-control deficits, increasing the death tax on all Americans and threatening the future of Medicare and Social Security. In the private sector, Mr. Speaker, that kind of failure would get you fired. But Republicans are counting on their special interest friends to save their political skins. And they have spared no taxpayer expense to do their work.

Take, for example, the small elite group of big contributors who fund Republican campaigns like the Bush campaign Pioneers and now the Bush campaign Rangers. They are undoubtedly happy because this Republican government has drained the U.S. Treasury by repeatedly passing expensive tax breaks for the wealthiest few. And earlier this week Republicans gave big polluters a pass to keep fouling the air of some of America's major metropolitan areas, including my home in north Texas.

Now, Mr. Speaker, Republicans are desperately trying to pull the wool over the eyes of America's seniors so that they can shower billions of dollars on HMOs, insurance companies, and the big drug companies. Under the Republican plan, millions of senior citizens would pay more and get less for Medicare. Up to one in four Medicare beneficiaries would actually pay more for prescription drugs than they do right now. Up to 7 million seniors would be forced to join an HMO and give up their choice of doctor or pay higher Medicare premiums. Between 2 and 3 million retirees would lose the drug coverage they now get from their former employers. And millions of seniors would go without drug coverage for months each year and be forced to pay premiums year round even when they are not getting any drug benefits.

While seniors lose under the Republican plan, drug companies and HMOs win big. Republicans are giving insurance companies a $12 billion slush fund. They are giving big drug companies $139 billion in windfall profits because they are actually making it illegal for Medicare to negotiate lower prescription prices for seniors. That is right, Mr. Speaker, Republicans can find billions of dollars for HMOs and drug companies, but they cannot afford year-round drug coverage for senior citizens. No wonder Republicans do not want their plan to take effect until after the 2004 elections. They are afraid that once seniors sit down and do the math they will see the Republicans have sold them a bill of goods.

This kind of outrage, Mr. Speaker, is simply business as usual under this Republican government. Nothing gets done for the American people, but Republicans and their allies do plenty of harm to the American people. It is a shameless abuse of power, Mr. Speaker; and the American public are the victims.

Meanwhile, we have before us another 2-day continuing resolution, which is the subject of this rule today.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey), the ranking member of the Committee on Appropriations.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Let us be very clear about what is going on here. The current continuing resolution runs out tomorrow. The Republican leadership is giving itself another 2 days. So by passing this next CR, that takes us through Sunday. They will not tell us when the next CR, how far it will go, whether we will be here Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday of next week doing the people's business. They will not tell us when the omnibus bill is going to come to the floor or whether it will come to the floor. They will not tell us how long the next CR will run, whether it will run to December 8 or whether it will run until some time in February. Either they simply do not know, or they will not tell. Either way, they make it very difficult to legislate in an orderly fashion.

We would all like to wind up the business for this year. I would hope that the Republican leadership can finally get their act together, bring the remaining appropriations bills or an omnibus bill to the floor in an orderly way, so that we can conclude the people's business this year and not continue to operate on a 2- or 3-day CR while the Republicans try and figure out what their next step is.

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

Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to the order of the House just adopted, I call up the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 79) making further continuing appropriations for the fiscal year 2004, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the House passed H.J. Res. 78, the fifth continuing resolution for fiscal year 2004, which extends the date of the current CR through Sunday, November 23. The Senate has chosen to amend this CR so that it would remain in effect until Monday, November 24.

We have, in turn, decided with the Senate leadership just to introduce a clean CR, H.J. Res. 79, that we are now considering. That would extend the date of the CR to January 31, 2004. I think I should be very clear of what this means. It is not our intention with this CR to allow it to run through January 31, but it will allow us great flexibility in scheduling the completion of our work on the final appropriations bills and at the same time ensure that there will not be any disruption in government operations. And I would like to point out, Mr. Speaker, that the Committee on Appropriations has done its job and did so quite a long time ago, but some of the issues that are keeping us from completing work on the actual bills have nothing to do with appropriations. But, nevertheless, they are there, and we do have to deal with them, and we are dealing with them as best we can.

We are proceeding with our work on the remaining appropriations bills. And as my colleagues know, there are two conference reports that have been ready for some time to file, the conference report on Transportation and Treasury and the conference report on Foreign Operations. However, as we proceed, we will finish the remaining bills as quickly as we can, and it will be leadership's decision on when the bills will be filed and when we will vote on it. We are proceeding with our work as diligently as we can.

Mr. Speaker, I believe this CR is noncontroversial, and I urge the House to move the legislation to the Senate since the current CR does expire today.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 2 minutes.

I just would like to point out, and I have done this so many times that it does not hurt to be repeated. The House completed its work during the summer, ahead of the end of the fiscal year. And I appreciate the cooperation we had from both parties as we proceeded with our appropriations bills. I am not here to blame anybody, and I certainly would not blame anybody but circumstances.

The Committee on Appropriations, as the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) pointed out, we had to do all of last year's work this year in January and February. Then we had three supplementals plus we did the 13 regular bills. This Committee on Appropriations has done its work. It has done its work well, and it has done its work

on time, as the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) has conceded. There are other problems.

One of the problems, and I do not know that anybody is going to like to hear this especially on my side of the aisle, one of the problems is this tremendous desire to solve legislative problems that the authorizing committees either cannot or will not solve. They are put onto appropriations bills, and they ask us to solve them because appropriations bills have to pass, Mr. Speaker. They are the only bills here really that have to pass. So we become a magnet for all of those issues that authorizers cannot solve, and we try to do the best we can. I think we are on the verge of having completed this job for this year.

I do not think it does any good to blame anybody. In fact, I would like to say that the chairman of the Appropriations Committee in the Senate is an outstanding leader, a strong, dynamic leader, who is very knowledgeable and understands the process totally. He understands the issues as well as anybody that I know. But he has a very difficult situation in the Senate, and he has done the best job that he could.

Anyway, Mr. Speaker, we are closing in on this. We are really prepared. We have been prepared for 3 weeks to file the Transportation and Treasury appropriations bill. We have been prepared for a week to file the conference report on the Foreign Operations appropriations bill. And they can be completed in a very short period of time.

The other remaining issue would be the omnibus bill that includes five appropriations bills that have not been completed in conference. And we are very close to having that completed. We are very close to being able to file that bill and vote on it. As a matter of fact, we had hoped that we would file it tonight. A lot of changes happened during the day. And every time we make a change, it takes a little extra time. So we probably will not file that bill tonight unless the House remains in session very late.

Anyway, I would agree that the process has not worked the best, but I would also say that I compliment the Members of House and especially the members of the Committee on Appropriations in the House and the staff that worked so diligently with us. We did our job. We have done our job, and we are attempting to pursue the completion of the whole process.

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

Mr. Speaker, I ask for a ``yes'' vote, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker I yield myself 6 minutes.

Mr. Speaker, as this joint resolution demonstrates, we are in another year that simply refuses to end. Last year we did not see this Congress finish the work that was supposed to be done by October 1 until well into the winter of the next calendar year. At that time the majority party in the House blamed that inability to get the work done on the fact that there was a majority of the other party in the other body.

This year they do not have Tom Daschle to kick around anymore. This year the Republicans control it all. They control the White House. They control the House. They control the Senate. They control the schedule. They control what gets to the floor. They control how long the votes are held open. They control everything. And yet we are in a situation where tonight, long after the fiscal year is supposed to be over, we still have not seen the budgets passed for VA-HUD, for the State Department, for the Justice Department, for the Commerce Department. We have yet to see the foreign aid budget pass. We have yet to see the budget for the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, social services agencies pass and the agriculture budget. I think we ought to ask why.

I do not believe that we are in this box because of any failure of the Committee on Appropriations leadership. I think we are in this box because the Republican House leadership is insisting on having every decision made in a top-down style. That means that the only real decisions that count except on minor matters are those made in the office of the Speaker or in the office of the majority leader.

No conferees are appointed unless they agree with the leadership's position on major issues. And yet even after rigging those conferences, even after stacking those conferences, when they still cannot win the votes that they need to win in those stacked conferences, they simply adjourn those conferences and then put legislation together in some off-corner office without any meaningful participation by anybody except perhaps some unelected members of the leadership's staff. So much for the legislative process in what used to be regarded as the greatest deliberative body in the world.

This process is about as respectful of rank and file Members as an AARP board meeting is respectful of the senior citizens they supposedly represent. On the same night that legislation is going to be considered that will bankrupt Medicare, we see the ultimate degradation of the legislative process at the same time as it is demonstrated in the appropriations process.

It is not often, Mr. Speaker, that one can do in senior citizens and the democratic process on the same night, but the House leadership should be congratulated because they have managed to find a way.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 4 minutes.

Mr. Speaker, as the gentleman from Florida has indicated, the Commerce-Justice bill could very easily have been brought back to this floor separately and passed separately. The Transportation bill could very easily have been brought back to the floor and passed separately. The Foreign Operations bill could very easily have been brought back to the bill floor and passed separately. The Agriculture the same and the VA-HUD bill the same.

The problem is, as the gentleman indicated, that there are many other issues that are being drug into the appropriations process. And we also see the situation complicated by the fact that the House Republican leadership, despite votes to the contrary on a number of issues, is insisting on seeing an outcome on a number of these issues which is at variance with the expressed wishes of the Members of the House. And I think therein lies the reason for the delay and delay and delay.

I think the problem that we have, Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Florida, my good friend, indicated that the committee product is serving as a magnet for other authorizations. I think a better metaphor would be that it is looking more and more like a garbage truck. And the problem we have is that this bill has not been allowed to proceed because I think the House leadership is still trying to determine what bags of garbage have to be tossed down to the truck before the truck is driven through here in the dead of night.

So that is the choice that we face, Mr. Speaker. It is not a pretty sight, and the outcome is not going to be very good. But there is not much we in the minority can do to affect either the scheduling or to affect how much garbage is tossed on the truck before it is run through the Capitol. I just hope the smell is not too bad before it is over.

Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote on the resolution.

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

Mr. Speaker, on that, I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 450 and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. Speaker, for purposes of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Frost), pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only.

Mr. Speaker, H. Res. 450 is a closed rule that provides for the consideration of H.J. Res. 78, a continuing resolution that will ensure further appropriations for fiscal year 2004.

The rule provides for 1 hour of debate in the House equally divided and controlled by the chairman and ranking minority member of the Committee on Appropriations. The rule waives all points of order against consideration of the joint resolution and provides for one motion to recommit.

Mr. Speaker, the provisions of the most recent continuing resolution, H.J. Res. 75, are scheduled to expire this Friday, November 21. The House Committee on Appropriations continues to work hard to complete the unfinished appropriations business of Congress, and we are hopeful that this work can be completed in the coming days. The resolution before us today, H.J. Res. 78, ensures funding through this weekend until November 23.

The House of Representatives passed all of its fiscal year 2004 appropriations bills long ago. We should complete Foreign Operations, Transportation-Treasury appropriate bills in the very near future. In addition, negotiations are under way to complete Agriculture, VA-HUD, Commerce-Justice-State, Labor-HHS, and the District of Columbia appropriations bills as well. However, to ensure that essential government services continue to operate while the omnibus appropriations bill is completed, this rule makes in order another continuing resolution to give us the additional time to complete the appropriations process in an orderly manner.

Mr. Speaker, under the joint resolution that H.J. Res. 450 makes in order, the provisions of the most recent continuing resolution will be extended for

2 more days. The Committee on Rules approved this rule last night. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting its passage.

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

Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, let me just say to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Frost)

that it is not that we do not want to inform them. It is that we do not know.

We are dealing with people in the other body who have not given us any indication of when they are prepared to move. But I will say that I agree 100 percent with the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey). We are moving piece by piece on these. And our side would like very much to pass them one at a time and get out of here Friday night or Saturday. I do not think it will be that soon on Friday night, but we are very close to getting our work done on the appropriations process so we would like to do that one at a time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution.

The previous question was ordered.

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 450, I call up the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 78) making further continuing appropriations for the fiscal year 2004, and for other purposes, and ask for its consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

And I will not consume very much time because this continuing resolution simply extends the existing CR until midnight Sunday, this weekend. All conditions, by the way, of the original CR would still exist on this CR. We are reaching the point where we can conclude the appropriations process. Most of the appropriations issues have already been solved and are prepared to be written into a final bill. There are some outstanding issues at a level higher than the Committee on Appropriations that we are trying to apply a little pressure to get settled. Other than that, Mr. Speaker, I would give the House the word that I think we can get this done by Sunday evening, but maybe not. We will do the very best that we can.

As one can imagine, there are an awful lot of issues that we have resolved and are continuing to resolve. We are working steadily. We had a good conference last night. We cleared up a lot of the issues. So, Mr. Speaker, not much more can be said about this.

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

Mr. Speaker, I ask for a ``yes'' vote, and I yield back the balance of my time.