John Ensign: “by the close of business today, the House will have taken another great strike toward its commitment to greater fiscal…”

“by the close of business today, the House will have taken another great strike toward its commitment to greater fiscal responsibility. The House's approval of H.R. 2, the Line-Item Veto Act, will ensure that the budget President Clinton sends to Capitol Hill today, and the budgets of future Presidents, are no longer considered dead on arrival. Congress will have to start paying attention to what's in those budgets. The Line-Item Veto Act, along with the balanced budget amendment, are the only measures strong enough to hold Congress accountable for its spending. The line-item veto is crucial in our efforts to eliminate wasteful pork in the budget because the President can require the Congress to justify, with the veto, its spending priorities. Current rescission powers granted to the President have failed miserably because the law simply allows Congress to sit on its hands and do nothing. Forty years of hand sitting has given us an annual deficit of $200 billion. Mr. Chairman, 43 of our Nation's Governors have the power to pare down wasteful pork-barrel spending. Beginning today, we take yet another step and recognize that Washington should live under the same discipline that our State governments have exercised for some time. Support for the line-item veto is bipartisan; 77 percent of Americans favor it. In the spirit of bipartisanship, the Republican Congress will give line-item veto authority to our Democratic President.”