Porter Goss: “Mr. Chairman, I missed some of the debate, but if I heard correctly, the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Moran] says the…”

“Mr. Chairman, I missed some of the debate, but if I heard correctly, the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Moran] says the President cannot alter the budget of the judiciary submitted to him by that branch. I do not think the gentleman from Virginia would argue that somehow the Congress is bound not to alter the request that we get from the judiciary in the appropriations bill. That just would not make sense. Of course, as I believe the chairman of Committee on Rules pointed out, the judicial branch last year actually got a little less from us than they wanted, than they submitted. The point I am trying to make is I do not think we should treat the branches of government differently and put one above and out and off the reservation because of some concern that someday we might have intimidation or some other thing. That is all part of the give and take of the process. We are trying to open up the process, open it up to the sunshine, saying this is an orderly way to submit a budget, everybody will honor the budget. Then it goes through a process. Then when we add the powers we have to do the business of governance in our Nation and clarify what should be done and should not be done, that is the process. If we find we are spending more than we are taking in, then we have the opportunity for some rescission.”