Marshall Sanford: “I stand before you and the rest of this body to encourage the adoption of the line-item veto. In fact, I have a scary…”

“I stand before you and the rest of this body to encourage the adoption of the line-item veto. In fact, I have a scary couple of numbers here in front of me. What do $1.75 million for national pig research have in common with $1.7 million for plant stress have in common with $600,000 to ease fish migration up a western river? The thing they all have in common is I cannot do anything about them. I came here to affect the way Government is spending money, and yet the way Congress works is that I cannot get my hands on them. The line-item veto would allow the President to do what 43 Governors can do, and that is to reach in, say this is a piece of fat, it does not make sense and it needs to go. Please vote with me for the line-item veto.”