William Tauzin: “This Congress could, if we wanted to, instead of appropriating in 13 appropriation bills or 11 or 3 or 1, we could…”

“This Congress could, if we wanted to, instead of appropriating in 13 appropriation bills or 11 or 3 or 1, we could appropriate in hundreds of appropriation bills. We could appropriate every single appropriation in a single bill, if we wanted to. Clearly, under the Constitution, the President would then have the right to veto that appropriation, and we would have a two-thirds obligation to override that veto. Clearly, Mr. Chairman, we could if we wanted to create a line-item veto authority through that mechanism. If we can create it that way, my argument to the gentlewoman from California, who argued against the constitutionality of what we are trying to do today, is that if we could create it that way, we can most certainly, under the Constitution, create it the way we are trying to create it today. I want, last of all, to commend my friend, the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Clinger], for the excellent job he did in this bill. I will join him in support of the bill.”