Peter Welch: “I support the Kennedy amendment but not for the reasons my friend from Louisiana does. I think that there should be some…”

“I support the Kennedy amendment but not for the reasons my friend from Louisiana does. I think that there should be some flexibility and there should be some governmental policy that helps our industry. And I do agree that the President should have some power. What I do not believe is that the Congress should be powerless. And that is what we have become, ceding our article I authority to a Chief Executive. And I don't care whether it is a Republican or a Democrat. The most important branch is the article I branch because we are the closest to the people. And how is it that we have, in this bill, a billion dollars--a billion dollars--that goes to an Executive to be spent in ways we have no input as to how it will be spent? We have no accountability; we have no way to tell the people we represent how this money is being spent and why. Mr. President, I believe that the biggest threat we have to this democracy is the failure of this Congress to assert its authority and accept its responsibility to make the decisions that the Constitution says is our obligation to do, and that starts with the power of the purse. I support the man from Louisiana in his amendment. I yield the floor.”