Date: 1986-09-25
Speaker: DE LA GARZA (democrat)
Chamber: H

and a Member opposed thereto. The amendment is not subject to amendment or to a demand for a division of the question in the House or in the Committee of the Whole. Finally. all points of order against the amendment are waived by this rule. The Rules Committee heard from numerous Members who sought to have amendments made in order to this continuing resolution. The Rules Committee did not make in order any of these amendments. however. with the exception of the de la Garza amendment I have Just noted. The de la Garza amendment strikes section 108. which contains amendments to provisions of the 1985 farm bill. The committee of jurisdiction over these programs. the Agriculture Committee. raised concerns that these amendments could have unintended consequences on farm programs. and may have been improperly drafted. Therefore. a simple motion to strike has been made in order. Mr. Speaker. with the target adjournment date 1 week and 1 day away. it Is imperative that we proceed to conference on this joint resolution as soon as possible. Most of the other amendments which were requested to be made in order addressed rather narrow policy areas. most were controversial. and consideration of these issues on the House floor would have taken a considerable amount of time. Therefore. none of the additional amendments were made in order. Mr. Speaker. with two exceptions. the joint resolution made in order by this rule. House Joint Resolution 738. is identical to the continuing appropriations bill for fiscal year 1978 introduced earlier by the Appropriations Committee. House Joint Resolution Yesterday. the- chairman of the Committee on Appropriations introduced House Joint Resolution 738. This joint resolution deletes appropriations which were contained in the original continuing resolution for the General Revenue Sharing Program. The only other change made in this new continuing resolution. Mr. Speaker. is a change in the percentage acrosstheboard cut contained in the bill. Originally. a cut of over 1 percent was required to offset appropriations for the General Revenue Sharing Program and drug bill provisions contained in the first resolution. With general revenue sharing being removed from the resolution. therefore. a much smaller acrosstheboard cut is now necessaryapproximately 0.34 percent. With the exception of these changes. Mr. Speaker. the bill is identical to the bill which has been pending before the House for several days. The chairman of the Committee on Appropriations chose to remove revenue sharing from this continuing appropriations bill in order to reduce the overall level of appropriations In the bill by some $3.4 billion. and to ensure that the continuing resolution conforms to the budget resolution we adopted earlier this year. Mr. Speaker. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the chairman of the Appropriations Committee for this action. Beyond the changes IVve noted. Mr. Speaker. this resolution makes continuing appropriations for the next fiscal year. Eleven of the thirteen regular appropriations bills are carried in this continuing resolution at the levels at which they were passed by the House. The remaining two regular appropriations bills which have not received floor actiondefense and foreign operationsare included in this continuing resolution at the levels at which they were reported from the Committee on Appropriations. And among the other important appropriations which are carried in this resolution. which will be detailed during general debate. I would note that the resolution does include appropriations to cover expenditures associated with the omnibus drug bill which we recently adopted. Mr. Speaker. It is imperative that we get the continuing resolution through the House and to conference. This is one of the three pieces of the budget puzzle we must resolve before this Congress adjourns. The other two. reconciliation and the debt limit. are also working through the legislative process. With as few as 6 working days left. we simply must move this legislation forward. Mr. Speaker. this rule will expedite action on this important measure. I urge adoption of the rule.