Date: 1982-10-01
Speaker: ROBERT C. BYRD (democrat)
Chamber: S

Mr. President. this is the last day of the Senates business before the election recess during this. the 2d session of the 97th Congress. It is appropriate at this time for us to review the progress we have .made this term in advancing the public agenda. and look forward to the days ahead to see how we might do better. In my opinion. Mr. President there has been a dramatic change in the poicies and operation of the U.S. Senate in the last 2 years. New party cohesiveness. an unprecedented use of the reconciliation process. and a legislative agenda that had only one prlmary focusthe budgethave been the tools used to fashion a radically new legislative agenda. one that I believe has contained many misguided policies and employed many misguided procedures. Although this administratinn has set an agenda focused almost exclusively on the budget. it iN in terrible shape. the worst ever. The economic situation is not much better. and it would be difficult to imagine a gloomier economic prognosis. The recession brought about by current policies has boosted unemployment 38 percent and thrown 3 million people out of work. Housing starts are down 37 percent. auto sales have declined 23 percent in the last 12 months. and the farm economy is in the worst depression since the 1930s. Output of goods and services has declined 1.5 percent since the recession began. The industrial production index has declined 10.33 parcent. capacity utilization is the lowest since 1975. and if business failures continue at their current rate. more will fall than in any single year since 1932. In short. Mr. President. a very limited legislative focuson the budgethas led. Ironically. to a very serious budgetary crisis. Let me review how I think this came about. For one thing. bipartisanship has taken a back seat in 1981 and 1982. with the opposition preferring to shape policy in conjunction with David Stockman. not their Democratic colleagues. In the process of creating a party government. the Senate has been polarized. Democrats have been frozen out. and the traditional consul. tation between parties has been precluded. I am deeply -concerned. Mr. President. that in the 98th Congress. the difficult issues facing the country be adequately addressed without the same narrow focus and lockstep partisanship which has dominated this Congress. Democrats. whether they are the majority party or the minority party in the 98th Congress. reject the level of partisanship which has characterized this Congress. and will work for more centrist. bipartisan congressional policy. From an historical perspective. radical changes in our countrys course do invite "party government." But when the radical change offers the country only worse conditions. bipartisan balance can. and must. pull the country onto a sounder course. Policy developed through consensus building is always preferrable to that which goes undebated. for the single reason that more people have a stake in its success. In this Congress. we have witnessed the development of revolutionary new budget procedures. The reconciliation process was used as it had never been used before. In the last 2 years. reconciliation instructions have been multiyear. have included requests for both entitlement cuts and authorization cuts. and have been directed at almost all of the standing committees. In effect. reconciliation used in this manner forces the Senate to consider the whole budget under strict limitations on time and amendments without the traditional committee review or input. The result is a budget defined by David Stockmannot the Congress. At the same time. under the germaneness rule. an amendment dealing with a matter not specifically in the reconciliation bill can be ruled out of order. The overall 20hour time limitation on reconciliation bills placed another restriction on consideration of authorizations. which in the past were debated separately. In spite of these limitations. more than 200 program changes were crammed into the 1981 bill. including major reauthorizations for housing and community development. rural housing. Amtrak. Conrail. and other transportation programs. highway safety. TVA. Appalachian Regional Commission. Energy Policy Conserva. tion Act. export administration. and other programs. Reconciliation. which was conceived as a tool to recover funds from appropriations bills after they had been passed. was turned into a process for omnibus. multiyear authorizations. Ironically. although discussion of substantive issues has been severely restricted by this use of the budgetary process. at the same time our entire legislative process has become much more vast and complex. "fiscalizing" nearly the entire Senate debate with "crosswalks." "targets." and "ceilings." This really represents a kind of reversal of the historic legislative process. as we have known it. with the entire Senate instructing the committees on the general direction they should take. This. in effect. weakens committees and the committee system. It is a process. though. ideally suited to a cohesive policy juggernaut with a limited goal and little regard for debate. hearings. or discussion by interested parties. In 1981. the Senate took approximately 200 rollcall votes on budget issues. More than twothirds of the recorded votes in the Senate were on budgetrelated matters. This singlemindednesss of purpose reflects the administrations agenda. and its singleminded dedication to redesigning Americas economic policy with a new ideology. Americans have been addressed more often on budget matters than on all other issues combined. To say that the administrationand to a slightly lesser degree Senate Republicanshas staked its political fortunes on the performance of the budget and the economy. would be an understatement. I am afraid. however. that the "riverboat gamble" has failed. and Democratic efforts to correct the excesses that have been pushed through. have been ignored. vetoed. frustrated. and opposed. When suitable corrective legIslation has been suggested by Democrats. it inevitably has been preemptorily rejected. and. in some cases where the majority could not maintain its cohesiveness. reintroduced and passed as a Republican measure. This has happened on issues ranging form unemployment insurance. social security. and Libyan terrorism. to providing a tough Inspector General for the Department of Defense. A simple look at the Senate agenda illustrates how the partisanship has greatly limited our progress. The percentage of nonsubstantive laws which have passed has doubled. More appropriations bills have been folded into continuing resolutions in the last 2 years (66) than in the previous 5 years (50). The percentage of pages in the debate on budget and reconciliation matters has at least tripled from the average levels between 1975 and 1980. In the cases of the first budget resolution. fiscal year 1983. the 1981 farm bill. and the DOD authorization. fiscal year 1983. the entire bill was either modified or recommitted after Senate Republicans met privately to address the concerns of David Stockman. bypassing the normal committee process. the budget process. and Senate Democrats. The record is clear. the pattern obvious. The Senate agenda has been primarily a debate on budget numbers. It is an agenda set by an administration that has been extremely reluctant to discuss any other aspects of economic policy. like monetary policy. trade policy. foreign exchange policy. reindustrialization. or international economics. In spite of the shabby use of the process and the intensely limited focus. the program that has been steamrolled through Congress has put this administration. after 20 months. in far worse budgetary shape than we have ever been in. The national debt has been increased $355 billion in the last 2 years. an increase of 38 percent. It took this country from the beginning of the republic to 1969 to reach the $355 billion level. It took this administration and its congressional allies only 2 years to reach the same figure. This "riverboat gamble". the Kemp/ Roth tax cut. plus the enormous defense increase. has made a fiasco of the budget. My interest today. however Mr. President. is not merely to look back. it is to look to the future as well. I am certain my friends on the Republican side are as nxious as I am to use the Senate as it once was used. as a forum for full and open debate on the great issues facing the country. I an certain that they. as well as we. would like to fashion an agenda that truly addresses our major issues. regardless of partisanship or ideology. I am developing a package of initiatives for the future. Most of these matters are ones Democrats have already worked hard to develop. ones that go right to the heart of the major economic issues facing the country. Among the legislative initiatives under consideration are: The Balanced Monetary Policy Act which I introduced in August with 33 cosponsors. It is the only proposal I know of that would really do something to lower interest rates. a housing stimulus packaged like the Lugar proposal. to help rescue this industry from disaster while promoting tens of thousands of new jobs. and a program to fund energy conservation and development activities such as coal ports. Any Democratic legislative package should also include a proposal for a National Investment Corporation. It would make affordable credit available to our hardpressed basic industries for retooling. so that they can once again be competitive in the world market. and offer subsidized loans and other forms of assistance to the socalled sunrise industries which are so essential to the economys future. Let me emphasize that I am not talking about providing bailouts for unprofitable industries. but rather a program which would combine financial help with aid in restructuring industries to make them more productive. The Germans. Japanese. and Swedes have all used national investment corporations to provide their basic Industries with affordable credit. I believe this kind of corporation would work well for us. too. We could pay for this program the same way we did in the Bradley "fairness amendment" to this summers tax and reconciliation bill. In that amendment. you may recall. we would have deferred a portion of the third year of the tax cut for those with incomes between $46.500 and $78.600. Those with incomes below $46.500 would be unaffected. those with incomes above $78.600 would have had the - entire amount of their tax cut deferred. This approach has the added advantage of correcting some of the unfairness of the Kemp/Roth program while helping America regain her predominant economic position. Mr. President. let me conclude by saying that we Democrats look forward to a less divided Senate. a more bipartisan Senate. a Senate more dedicated to the nutsandbolts committee work and floor debate that leads toward consensus and agreement. and away from ideology and partisanship. We need everyones cooperation to help do the job that needs to be done forAmerica. I can assure all -my colleagues that we Democrats intend to play a vital role in the days ahead. joining our Republican colleagues in meeting the challenges before us.