Political Quotes

“someone once said that the only thing which truly lives forever is a Government program in Washington, DC. I am introducing legislation today to rein in the growth of those big Government programs and to require the Congress to stop rubberstamping programs in this body. The sunset legislation that I put forward today will require the key programs of Government to face regular scrutiny and stand or fall on their merits. This legislation would give Congress a new and powerful tool to rein in the bureaucracy and create a Federal Government that would be smaller, less costly, and more accountable to the American people. The legislation that I introduce today would establish a special bipartisan, bicameral congressional committee which would be charged with reviewing the key programs of Government every 5 years. Any U.S. citizen of voting age could petition this committee for the termination of these programs. If the committee recommended termination and Congress failed to reauthorize that program within 1 year of that recommendation, it would then become impossible to provide any appropriation for that program without a three-fifths vote in both Houses. In other words, a sunset law would provide a mechanism for shutting the door on unneeded, mismanaged, or failed efforts in Government. This legislation would end the inertia which sometimes carries Federal programs forward in perpetuity.”