Providing for the consideration of the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 78) 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, 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.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time.

Mr. Speaker, I simply take the time to indicate that the House has no choice but to proceed to pass the short-term CR in hopes that the House will come closer to finishing its work by the time we have to pass another one. But let me also say that I would hope that we would use the time constructively so that Members still can get out of here for the year on a reasonable schedule.

I note last night, for instance, that we are within a hair's breadth of having total agreement on the VA-HUD appropriations and on the CJ bill. The transportation bill has already been filed, and it is hoped that the foreign ops bill will be filed and acted upon also. That would mean that we could reduce considerably the number of bills that would have to go into the omnibus. I have no particular ax to grind about whether they do or they do not, but it would seem to me that it would be one way to at least assist on unsnarling what remains to be done before we finish.

With that, I would simply say when the CR comes, I hope that we could dispose of it in a favorable fashion so we can get on with the remainder of our work for this week.

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

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