Kendrick Meek: “this amendment is a clarifying, technical amendment to the bill. It should not be controversial. My amendment would…”

“this amendment is a clarifying, technical amendment to the bill. It should not be controversial. My amendment would simply specify that all of the funds saved through lock-box spending reductions would be used for deficit reduction, and not for tax cuts. Mr. Chairman, I strongly support the goal of reducing the Federal deficit, although I strongly disagree with how the Republican majority is attempting to achieve this goal. My amendment will insure that this bill actually does what it is advertised to do--cut the deficit. The sponsors of this bill say that any cuts in a specific appropriations bill made on the floor of the House or the Senate should go only to deficit reduction. But the actual text of the bill only says that the funds cut on the floor cannot be used for other appropriations bills. The reported bill does not actually say that the cuts must be used for deficit reduction. Thus, the bill leaves open the possibility that the spending cuts could be used to pay for a tax cut. My amendment corrects this ambiguity and makes it clear that the cuts cannot be used to pay for a tax cut.”