By REP. MAC COLLINS
3rd District U.S. Congress

After hard negotiations with the White House, the House of Representatives passed the final appropriations bills last Thursday.

We worked hard to craft a bill that met the goals spelled out in the Balanced Budget Resolution passed earlier this session. Our goal was to build a firewall between spending and the Social Security Trust Fund, and to improve defense and education.

This was not an easy task. At the end of the day, spending was higher than I wished and lower than the spenders wanted.

That is the sort of give and take that makes this republic work. I was not happy that Congress used the term “emergency funding” to describe some large spending measures; however, the end result was more important. For the first time in 30 years, Congress walled off the Social Security Trust Fund.

Before the Republican majority took over in 1994, economists laughed at suggestions of a real balanced budget and said government could survive only by raiding the trust fund. We've proven them wrong.

This was the most significant achievement of this Congress. You might say it was the fiscal equivalent of getting a drug addict to quit his habit. The positive cash flow coming from payroll taxes was an irresistible temptation to spenders. This year we just said, “no.”

We did this and still managed to boost spending and local control over education funding. We hiked our soldiers' pay, and strengthened our military. We managed to pay down $88 billion of the national debt.

Even with these achievements, there is more to do. I am going to work hard in the second half of the 106th Congress so that we will again have a balanced budget amendment and will live within its limits. I want to see Congress do this, but with less creative accounting. That will take not only my efforts, but the support of Georgia's taxpayers.

When Congress passed the Balanced Budget Act in 1997, it included measures designed to preserve Medicare by cutting wasteful spending. Unfortunately, the Administration went too far. Their cuts went too deep and were hurting many health care providers. Rural hospitals, which have a disproportionate share of Medicare and Medicaid recipients, were among the hardest hit.

This act assists rural hospitals, offers beneficiaries more flexibility through Medicare+Choice, and improves outpatient rehabilitation service. It also ensures continued availability of home health care services, and helps teaching hospitals.

This Congress scored two victories for children. We preserved language blocking use of American funds to provide for United Nations programs promoting abortion.

The House also passed a plan to provide initiatives for foster youth to adjust to life on their own. The Ways and Means Committee, on which I sit, drafted the bill to help 18-year-olds make the tough transition from foster care to life on their own. H.R. 3443 (formerly H.R. 1802), “the Foster Care Independence Act of 1999,” doubles the funding to States to conduct independent living programs for foster care youths making the transition to adulthood. The bill is expected to pass the Senate and be signed by the President in the coming weeks.

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