Charles W. Stenholm: “the debate tonight has been a good debate. Members on both sides have made very good and relevant points. However, I…”

“the debate tonight has been a good debate. Members on both sides have made very good and relevant points. However, I believe it has now been clearly demonstrated that much more work remains before this amendment should be sent to the other body. If I have learned anything over the many years that we spent in bipartisan work on the passage of the balanced budget constitutional amendment, it is a tremendous respect for every significant single word that goes into the Constitution of the United States. The constitutional amendment bipartisanly worked on over the years underwent a great deal of scrutiny both in the public arena and in committee hearings. The amendment evolved and improved because of that scrutiny. We have seen an alarming abuse of the committee review process during this entire Congress, but never so blatantly as with this constitutional amendment. For people who revere the history of this Nation, the aborted democratic procedures of the past year and a half make a mockery of the title deliberative body.”