Date: 2000-10-19
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. this continuing resolution really should not be approved. and it should not be approved because it is not going to allow us to get the work of this country done in this Congress because it simply postpones the date at which we are going to be held responsible for getting that work done. I would hope the President does not grant this continuing resolution because a continuing resolution should only be granted so we can get our work done. This continuing resolution is being granted and then everybody is going to go home. Everybody is going to leave here tonight and come back Wednesday. and the continuing resolution runs until Wednesday. Now we have beard weekend after weekend how the Republicans are going to stay here and work. but nothing happens. No meetings take place. Nobody works. No progress is made. and I think it is time to say enough is enough. The President ought to give us a continuing resolution until Monday and we ought to stay here tomorrow and Saturday and Sunday and get the peoples business done. There is a great deal at stake here. There is a great deal of concern in this country. and we have expressed it on both sides of the aisle. about our education system. about the resources that are necessary for our education system. We strongly believe certainly on this side of the aisle that we ought to increase the expenditures for special education. We ought to increase the expenditures for school construction. for modernization. and we ought to get on with it. We ought to get it done because this is what the people want for their children. We ought to make sure that clearly the funds are in place for teacher quality. to lower class size. and supposedly both sides of the aisle are for that. except it just is not being. done. The President has asked us now. point blank. to get it done and yet we find out that the meetings are not taking place. that the Republican leadership in the Senate and in the House are not coming together to present that plan and that proposal. So what do we see? We drag on day after day. week after week. and the continuing resolution now. instead of forcing us to get things done. becomes an excuse for which we do not get things done. and meetings do not take place. So I think we would be much more honest to the people we represent and to the people who are concerned with these issues in the country if we would shorten this continuing resolution. if in fact we would require people to stay here and work. Maybe we ought to go back to open conference committees where people are heldaccountable for the work product of those committees. I know that this extends in other areas. but I have worked very hard on some of these education bills. We have talked about the help that we can give to many districts that need additional financial assistance for special education. and yet we see that that is bogged down. That cannot be that difficult to resolve. these education issues and to resolve them on behalf of Americas families. on behalf of Americas children and our local schools. They need these resources to do the job. They should be given these resources to do the job. and we should do it now. I would hope that later on when we are asked to vote on the continuing. resolutions that people would reject this. and we would get on with a continuing resolution that puts some pressure on the Congress to get done with the peoples business and to resolve these issues on health care. I do not know if we have run out of time. but I would also hope that we could address the problems of prescription drug benefits. that we could address the problems of a Patients Bill of Rights. that we could address the problems of the minimum wage for millions of workers who need additional financial resources to hold their families together. to provide. hopefully. themselves with the wherewithal to buy some kind of health care policy. - 1430 But these are people who are going to work every day. they are working hard. and. at the end of the year. they end up poor. They end up without health care. they end up without decent hbusing. they end up without decent educational opportunities for their children. and we ought to raise the minimum wage. But we ought to do it now. and We should not continue to provide excuses another 4 days. another 5 days. another 6 days. when everybody just goes home. they hold fundraising events. they go campaign. they go to golf tournaments. they do all the rest of it. They just forget to do the peoples business. And that ought to stop. and we ought to stop that now by defeating this continuing resolution. and maybe give us the continuing resolution to finish this weekend and get the peoples work done and go home.