Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I rise today to discuss my vote against the continuing resolution on Friday, January 26.

The CR under which the Government is now operating is the ninth continuing resolution for fiscal 1996. That is four more CR's for 1 fiscal year than we have ever passed before. And we can be sure, come March 15, that we will be traveling down this road again.

This CR continues a dangerous and chaotic policy of haphazardly appropriating funds, while leaving State and local governments, Federal employees, and millions of Americans who depend on the Federal Government uncertain of the future.

This uncertainty can be traced in large part to the fact that months into fiscal 1996, the Republican controlled Congress has yet to complete work on all 13 appropriations bills.

This congressional foot dragging has brought us to the point we're at today: With a CR that is nothing more than a cynical attempt, by those who held the Government hostage and then didn't get their way, to dismantle critically important Federal programs in a piecemeal and indiscriminate fashion.

Let me be clear on one point: I am absolutely committed to balancing the budget. In 1981, I was one of six Senators to vote against President Reagan's budget, which I may add got us into this mess in the first place. I cosponsored the Gramm-Rudman Deficit Reduction Act and just last October, I was 1 of 19 Senators to vote for the Simon-Conrad bill that would balance the budget in 7 years with CBO numbers.

More important, after the havoc wreaked by the Republicans during the last Government shutdown, I am committed to seeing the Government stay open and Federal employees at their desks.

Continuing resolutions, Government shutdowns, and legislative blackmail are simply no way to run the Federal Government.

The majority party says we must balance the budget to protect our children from inheriting a crushing debt. Yet at the same time we hear this rhetoric, the majority is passing a CR that directly harms our children's future by eliminating $3.1 billion from education programs--the largest cut in education funding in American history.

Education is not alone. This CR would cut back funding by 25 percent for the Cops on the Beat Program, summer jobs programs for disadvantaged youth, and environmental cleanup. How can this Congress claim it is protecting children at the same time it is cutting money to keep communities safe and our water and air clean?

The majority party came into Washington with the slogan `Promises Made, Promises Kept.' Well if their promises were to shut down the Government, eliminate money for education and the environment, cut Medicare and Medicaid, raise taxes on working families, and now hamstring the Federal Government's efforts to maintain its responsibilities and obligations, then I suppose they have kept their promises.

I am hopeful that at some point in the future we will take our cue from President Clinton's State of the Union call for reconciliation by reaching a bipartisan agreement on how to balance the budget. Until then, this Government will stumble from CR to CR while millions of Americans suffer.

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