Mr. MICA. Mr. Speaker and my colleagues, the American people should know how bad our national indebtedness situation has grown. To satisfy the insatiable appetite for expanding our $5 trillion debt, this administration is now robbing Federal retirement trust funds . Oh, yes, we promise to pay back grandma and grandpa, but is it not sad in fact that we have sunk to a new low, stealing from our senior citizens' rainy day account?

As chairman of the House Subcommittee on Civil Service, let me tell you the irresponsible mess the new majority inherited. Thirty-five of our Federal pension funds have $1 trillion; it amounts to trillions of dollars in unfunded liabilities. In the private sector you would be arrested for running pension funds in this fashion.

The Federal Employees' Retirement trust fund that I oversee, this is just one of them, has an unfunded liability of $540 billion. Another $350 billion has already been raided from the current account. Now, Secretary Rubin tells us, he can cook the books and feed the debt until the end of January.

Today we must act responsibly. Today we must act to protect our dwindling retirement funds , and today we must begin to get our Nation's finances and these retirement accounts in order.