[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 16 (Thursday, January 26, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H699-H700]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  THE CONSTITUTION SHOULD NOT ALLOW A MINORITY TO CONTROL THE BUDGET 
                                PROCESS

  (Mr. OLVER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. OLVER. Mr. Speaker, we need to pass a balanced budget amendment, 
but amending the Constitution really cannot be taken lightly. Our 
Constitution has only been amended 17 times in over 200 years since the 
Bill of Rights. Our Constitution is based on majority rule, and we 
should not vote to put budget control in the hands of a minority of 
Members.
  In all the instances that are written into the Constitution of a 
supermajority, all of those are instances are where the legislative 
branch must approve or must override the action of another coequal 
branch: The affirmative vote to override a veto by the President, the 
Executive, the 
[[Page H700]] leader of the executive branch; the rejection vote to 
impeach a judge, or a President, a person in one of the other branches; 
the affirmative vote to ratify a treaty; the affirmative vote to ratify 
an action by the President. The Constitution includes also the 
allowance for the Chambers to eject a Member that has been voted by the 
people, the ultimate kind of rejection.
  The Constitution should not be amended to allow a minority to control 
the budget process.


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