Angie Craig: “I have before me at this moment the National Journal's Congressional Daily. It is a report of the activities of Congress…”

“I have before me at this moment the National Journal's Congressional Daily. It is a report of the activities of Congress on a daily basis, referring to what committees are doing both in the House and the Senate and also reporting on the executive branch of Government. It is one of those documents that many of us often refer to as an accurate accounting of the day-to-day activities of the U.S. Congress. I thought it was appropriate to bring before us at this time. A week ago, we finalized debate and voted on a balanced budget amendment to our Constitution. At that time, we failed to get the necessary 67 votes by 1 vote. Immediately following that, we saw a precipitous drop in the value of the dollar on world currency markets, which actually continued through most of this week, only to be abated by Alan Greenspan coming to Capitol Hill and talking to a House committee on the need for congressional action as it relates to deficit reduction. That seemed to, at least for a time, level out the decline of the dollar. One of the things that has concerned me--and I see the Senator from Illinois on the floor at this moment, who was one of the major leaders in the balanced budget amendment issue--and has concerned the Senator from Illinois for so long is the inability of Congress to manage the deficit.”