John Spratt: “we had the Congressional Research Service do some research which I think is extremely helpful in understanding the…”

“we had the Congressional Research Service do some research which I think is extremely helpful in understanding the importance of this power that we give the President to use this additional rescission authority throughout the fiscal year. According to CRS, the Congressional Research Service, 99 percent of all rescissions sent up here by the President were sent beyond the 10-day period after the adoption of appropriation bills. That points up that frequently the rescission authority is not used to knock out pork barrel stuff, but to try to adjust the budget in midyear when we have got underfunded accounts for the Veterans Administration, underfunded accounts for operations and maintenance and defense, and we have to pay for the supplementary budget authority by rescinding other budget authority on the books. Then the President has the authority to formulate his request, send it up here and be guaranteed under our bill a quick 20-day turnaround.”