The Federal Budget

THE FEDERAL BUDGET -- (House of Representatives - April 05, 2006)

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Mrs. SCHMIDT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Tennessee. I appreciate the opportunity to talk tonight, Mr. Speaker, about an important tool that would I believe help eliminate wasteful spending.

When I was first elected to Congress last August, I pledged to be a fiscal conservative for the residents of the 2nd District of Ohio. Taking a fiscally disciplined approach to government has always been one of my top priorities as an elected official. I am committed, as my colleagues on this side of the aisle are, to seeking out and supporting common-sense measures that promote fiscal responsibility and curb government spending.

That is why I cosponsored and strongly support the Line Item Veto Act of 2006, which the President recently sent to Congress. The line item veto would be a useful tool designed to reduce the budget deficit, improve accountability and ensure that taxpayer dollars are spent wisely.

Many people are surprised to learn that the President currently has no power to remove wasteful or unnecessary spending in appropriations bills or other pieces of legislation that are presented to him. Oftentimes, provisions are slipped into a larger spending bill that never gets discussed or debated. The result is more spending in the Federal budget.

The Legislative Line Item Veto Act would allow the President the authority to line out unjustified spending items, eliminate new entitlement spending from larger legislation, and return the bill to Congress for consideration. The Congress, us, would then have 10 days to vote on each and every proposed cut.

I am proud to say this is a bipartisan issue. Leaders and Members of the Republican and Democratic side of this aisle, in both the House and the Senate, have supported this approach in the past. They have. In fact, in 1996, the Congress gave the President a line-item veto but the Supreme Court struck down that version of the law in 1998 because the Court felt that the act gave the President too much power to change the text of enacted statutes.

But this Line Item Veto Act does not raise those constitutional issues because the President's rescission proposals must be approved by a majority in Congress and signed into law. So we do have congressional oversight.

Forty-three governments, including my own in Ohio, have the line-item veto to reduce spending, and I believe now is the time to give the President of the United States a similar tool to help control spending in the Federal budget.

The line Item Veto Act is not about giving the President more power or taking power away from Members of Congress. This legislation is about ensuring that hard-earned taxpayer dollars are spent more wisely, and that is our mission, is it not, to spend the taxpayer dollars more wisely, more efficiently, more prudently.

While I do believe that this legislation will go a long way toward identifying and eliminating waste in government, I caution this body to realize this is not the only solution. This is one of many, and I am committed to working with my colleagues in Congress on both sides of the aisle to seek out other ways to promote fiscal responsibility and curb spending.

Thank you, and I commend my good colleague from Tennessee for taking on this issue and all the Members that are here.

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