Jim Nussle: “I appreciate that. So while we are continuing to learn the lessons, Congress needs to plan for it. Congress needs to…”

“I appreciate that. So while we are continuing to learn the lessons, Congress needs to plan for it. Congress needs to plan for these emergencies, and our budget does that. This year, not only will we build in a reform of our mandatory programs and further restrain our nonsecurity discretionary spending, but we need to reform the budget process as well to reflect the actual spending that is currently spent outside of that normal budget process, and it is called emergency spending, for many natural disasters where appropriate spending is certainly necessary. In addition to emergency reforms contained in this budget, we will continue the process of reforming the budget and reforming the budget process and how we make spending decisions throughout this year. We need to tackle earmarks. We need to tackle the sunsetting of programs that have outlasted their usefulness. We need to deal with line-item veto, and we will do this throughout this year. Let me just end by saying this. I do not think I need to remind anybody about the massive challenges and changes that our Nation has endured these past few years or the myriad of challenges that lie ahead. We have had enormous challenges in writing the budget. I do not shy away from any of them. I know it would be easy for somebody to just punt. Well, we decided we were going to meet each one of those challenges and deal with them, and every single year we have had a plan.…”