On the recordMay 16, 2000
Mr. Speaker, before any of us can speak on this floor, we first have to take an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States. That Constitution was created by our Founding Fathers because they had a huge suspicion of power, especially executive power. That is why they created an Article I of the Constitution, the Congress of the United States, an independent branch of Government. And to keep it independent and to make certain that we would never have excess power in the hands of the executive, they lodged in this institution the power of the purse. Today if we pass this proposal, we are walking away from our constitutional obligation to defend the power of the purse. This is a debate about power and the use and misuse of power and how you best maintain checks on that use of power. I think there are two fundamental problems with this proposition.
Source
govinfo.gov
