Lynn C. Woolsey: “today the House averted another Gingrich Government shutdown by voting to fund the Government for 1 week. That is right…”

“today the House averted another Gingrich Government shutdown by voting to fund the Government for 1 week. That is right, 1 week. In typical inside-the-Beltway lingo the Republican leadership called it a 1-week continuing resolution. But if you ask me, it amounts to nothing more than 1 more week of continuing madness, madness on Capitol Hill, and, more seriously, 1 more week of continuing uncertainty for our Nation's schools. Let us talk about the continuing madness around here. I have been a member of the House Committee on the Budget since coming to Congress in 1993. Two years in a row we did our work, passed the necessary spending guidelines and met our deadlines. On top of that, we managed to cut the deficit in half in the process. We cut it by 50 percent. The new majority, however, wasted the beginning of 1995 trying to pass their Contract With America. As a result, we are halfway into the fiscal year, and the 1996 budget for most domestic programs has still, still not been set by this do-nothing majority. Instead, critical environmental protection, health care, and education programs have been funded on a month-to-month basis at a greatly reduced level. When you change that from a month-to-month to a week-to-week program, as the House did today, the new majority's piecemeal approach to governing means nothing more than continuing uncertainty for our Nation's schools.”