Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, on February 6 of this year the House passed H.R. 2, to give the President the line-item veto. The Senate followed suit in adopting S. 4, a separate enrollment version of item veto which was both considerably weaker than the House language and which posed substantial administrative burdens. The disparity between our approaches was obvious, and so for the past several months Representatives of the House and Senate have been meeting informally to sort out the differences between our bills. The meetings have helped to identify areas for compromise and have focused attention on areas of remaining concern, such as the bills' target tax benefit language and en bloc voting provisions. Because of these informal and bipartisan discussions, it now appears that agreement on the line-item veto is well within reach. House and Senate leaders have agreed that a formal conference is now warranted, and we are prepared to act. But to progress further and achieve a final agreement, the House must agree to a conference. My motion will allow us to move forward through a conference to resolve our few remaining differences and send to the President the bill he has been seeking--the strongest possible line-item veto.”