The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“OMNIBUS APPROPRIATIONS” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Commerce was published in the Senate section on pages S12121 on Oct. 1, 1996.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
OMNIBUS APPROPRIATIONS
Mr. FAIRCLOTH. Mr. President, yesterday, I was 1 of only 15 Senators to vote against the omnibus spending bill.
Mr. President, I deplore the process by which this bill was created.
Mr. President, when the Republicans took over the Congress--the Democrats were spending about $503 billion on domestic programs. Last year, after holding firm on principle we cut that to $488 billion. Now that number is back up to $503 billion.
Because we already have a $5 trillion debt, the billions in new spending represent a new 30-year obligation for our citizens. This is an obligation that we cannot afford.
Next year, we will have to cut $10 billion to get back on track and keep our commitments under the 1997 budget resolution. The budget resolution was the blueprint by which we would achieve a balanced budget in 7 years by the year 2002. We have already changed the plan and this is just year one.
There were supposed to be offsets to this new spending. But they were phony offsets.
The so-called refinancing of the savings insurance fund for the S&L problems is really coming from the banking industry. That money is to be used in a separate fund in case of future S&L failures. But the Congress has decided that we should use it to offset more spending.
We cut the defense budget further. Yet, the defense budget, in real dollars, has been cut in half since 1984.
While the President says on the campaign trail that he is not a liberal his aides were back here in Washington forcing us to spend more money on more liberal programs, cutting defense, and using accounting gimmicks to justify all of this.
This kind of game has gone on for too long, and it has to stop.
If we care so much for the children, why don't we leave them a country that is less in debt, not more in debt.
The wasteful spending that is littered throughout this bill is truly astounding. More foreign aid spending. Over $200 million for the United Nations, a bloated, wasteful bureaucracy. Over $200 million for the Advance Technology Program in the Commerce Department--this program has principally been known as the prince of corporate pork--serving Fortune 500 companies.
This is $40 million more for D.C. schools, even though they spend
$9,000 per student, more than any other city in the United States.
And, $196 million for Howard University in the District of Columbia,
$4 billion more for the Department of Education, $82 million for the National Endowment of the Arts, $1.6 million for the Kennedy Center, money for a new defense program called Security at International Sporting Events, $9 million for 100 percent guaranteed international housing loans, $1.9 million for supervision of the Teamsters election,
$27 million for debt restructuring with Latin America countries, $19 million for the International Fund for Ireland, $5 million for the victims of Chernobyl, and the creation of a new Middle East Development Bank in which we authorize over $1 billion to be spent.
Mr. President, can we really afford this kind of spending. If we can't stop it where is it going to stop. This is the reason why I voted against this bill.
Now, Mr. President, I am grateful for the funding for Hurricane Fran in my State. This money will be helpful to that State, but my concern was that in order to vote for that funding--so much waste was attached to the bill--that on balance North Carolinians would be worse off for it.
Mr. President, finally, I am disappointed with the results of the illegal immigration bill.
Once again, the President campaigns like a moderate, but those are not the policies he advocates in Washington.
How can we stop illegal immigration if we continue to provide benefits to those that come here illegally.
The President has essentially forced ever school district in this country to educate, at taxpayers expense, children of parents who are in this country illegally. What kind of respect for the law does this demonstrate.
Mr. President, this Congress has made great progress on many issues. We fell just one vote short of getting a constitutional amendment to balance the budget. We made great strides in cutting spending. But in the wee hours of the morning this weekend, we had to give the President what he wanted or else he, not us, would have shut the Government down.
This is a shame, but next year the process will start again, and we have to be dedicated to reducing this debt on the American people by reducing the kinds of waste that we approved yesterday.
Thank you Mr. President, I yield the floor.
____________________
