Jane Harman: “I am delighted to stand here in enthusiastic support for the lockbox bill. A bit later, I will be offering an amendment…”

“I am delighted to stand here in enthusiastic support for the lockbox bill. A bit later, I will be offering an amendment to make it even better. But meanwhile, as the self-styled mother of lockbox, who has now moved into being the grandmother of lockbox, I would like to share with our colleagues some of the history here. The gentleman from New York was correct when he said that a number of us introduced this bill almost 3 years ago on the Democratic side. Similarly, a Republican, the gentleman from Idaho, offered it as a Republican bill. We joined together, and, over time, our bipartisan efforts became the genesis of the bill we are voting on today. Mr. Chairman, I want to point out to everyone that prior to signing the budget bill in August 1993, President Clinton signed an Executive Order which enacted a lockbox into which all of the savings generated and the revenues raised under the 1993 budget bill would go. That lockbox concept has yielded hundreds of millions of dollars for deficit reduction, so we know that the concept worked.”