Conrad Burns: “I think we have looked at the accumulation of debt, as was reported by the Senator from Iowa. This date is noted across…”

“I think we have looked at the accumulation of debt, as was reported by the Senator from Iowa. This date is noted across the country as Tax Freedom Day and the deficit continues and the accumulation of debt continues. This is the latest it has ever come in the year, the 4th day of May, 2 days longer than a year ago. So I think what we are looking for here is, if we are really serious about taking not only what the subject of this bill has been, but also some fiscal responsibility--I have long believed that if Congress really and earnestly is concerned about accountability and responsibility, there are two things that should be done. This is what I am told when I go home. First, any legislation that is passed by Congress and signed into law by the President, and as a result, that law goes to a faceless bureaucracy to write the administrative rules--once the rules have been written and they are entered into the Federal Register they become the law of the land. So Members of Congress go home and one day they find out from their constituency, ``Look at this law that you have passed. Look what it has done to me.'' So Members of Congress look at it and they say, ``When we passed it, that was not the intent of the law.'' I suggest on some pieces of legislation, after those rules are written, they should come back to the Congress for the final OK by the Congress.”