Sam Gibbons: “the Constitution, as I read and understand it, gives the House of Representatives the sole authority to raise taxes.…”

“the Constitution, as I read and understand it, gives the House of Representatives the sole authority to raise taxes. However, now the nuclear industry wants to change this. H.R. 45, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1999, proposes to grant taxing authority to the Secretary of Energy. That is right, the Secretary of Energy will have the authority to raise taxes on your electric rates, and that is a terrible precedent to set. The bill also proposes to take the Nuclear Waste Trust Fund off budget. We all know what that means. No more congressional oversight on how much money goes into the account or how the money is spent. And it puts the Nuclear Waste Trust Fund in the same technical off-budget status as the Social Security Trust Fund. How bizarre. H.R. 45 will break the balanced budget resolution and circumvent the bipartisan Budget Enforcement Act. Not to mention this bill still completely ignores our environmental laws, it ignores commonsense science, it ignores transportation hazards, and it ignores human health concerns. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 45 circumvents the Constitution, it sets bad congressional precedent, and it is bad for America. We need to do what is right for our constituents and oppose H.R. 45.”