Porter Goss: “I rise obviously in very strong support of the House-passed version of the line-item veto. I would point out that taking…”

“I rise obviously in very strong support of the House-passed version of the line-item veto. I would point out that taking this up today as we start out the fall session is a promise kept. We said we would do it, we are doing it. I certainly commend the gentlewoman from Illinois [Mrs. Collins] and the gentleman from West Virginia [Mr. Wise] for carrying her motion to resolution which we agree with, as we have said, to instruct conferees. I think it is a useful addition. I would point out that by a vote of 294 to 134 in early February, this House acted, I think, very decisively to grant line-item veto authority to the President. We really are committed to establishing this tool to root out unnecessary or wasteful spending where we can identify it, and we can, and unfair tax breaks as well, where we can identify them. Our colleagues in the other body obviously have come up with a markedly different approach to the line-item veto, as we all know, their so-called separate enrollment process, and I frankly think that is a very cumbersome and complex process, and I do not think it can be effective, but we will discuss that in conference. We are going to have our work cut out for us over there. Preliminary discussions, however, make me a little optimistic that we are going to be able to make some progress. I think we are beginning to see some wisdom from people on the other side in understanding our position on this and why we think it is going to work better.”