Thomas E. Petri: “while we all want to support our military, our fight against terrorism, and efforts to rebuild areas affected by the…”

“while we all want to support our military, our fight against terrorism, and efforts to rebuild areas affected by the terrorist attacks of September 11, I find I must once again express my strong objection to the continued disregard for existing law and the House Rules shown by the Appropriations Committee. While the conference report has only been available for a few hours, there clearly are several objectionable provisions. While too numerous to specify all of them, I will highlight just a few. When the House considered H.R. 3338 on November 28, several points of order were made striking provisions that funded certain aviation and highway spending from the Aviation and Highway Trust Funds. The points of order were upheld because language directing that the funding be from the trust funds was determined to be a violation of the House Rules because this funding from the Trust Funds was not authorized. The $40 billion emergency response supplemental passed after September 11 did not provide for funding from the Trust Funds. This spending should come from the general fund. Perhaps it is no surprise to find that this conference report inserts the Trust Fund provisions again, in violation of the House Rules.”