Political Quotes

“the Congressional Budget Act, Rule 21 of the House of Representatives, and Rule 16 of the Senate are all designed to establish a balance between authorizing legislation and appropriations bills that would allow Congress to consider authorizing legislation in a timely and thoughtful manner, and prevent the year-ending appropriations process from degenerating into a venue for policymaking and provincialism. Yet, according to CBO, over the past several years, the total amount of unauthorized appropriations has ranged between about $90 billion and $120 billion annually, and since 1998, the number of earmarks has risen by 150 percent to 10,540, which cost $44.6 billion in 2002 alone. This trend has made a mockery of our institutional arrangement and beckons us to take action to fix the system. The bill introduced today is not perfect, but it recognizes the deficiencies in current procedure and represents an earnest and thoughtful attempt to correct them. It would improve Rule 16 to close the loophole that currently insulates Senate appropriations committee-reported bills containing unauthorized appropriations and legislative language from points of order, while preserving the Senate's 'defense of germaneness' to amend legislative language in House-passed appropriations bills.”