[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 22 (Friday, February 3, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H1164]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1040
  PASSAGE OF LINE-ITEM VETO EXPECTED TO FALL ON EX-PRESIDENT REAGAN'S 
                       84TH BIRTHDAY NEXT MONDAY

  (Mr. FORBES asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. FORBES. Mr. Speaker, in his 1984 State of the Union Address 
President Ronald Reagan said, ``As Governor, I found this line-item 
veto was a powerful tool against wasteful and extravagant spending. It 
works in 43 States. Let's put it to work in Washington for all the 
people.''
  Now, more than a decade later, President Reagan may get his wish. As 
Republicans continue to honor our Contract With America, we are finally 
close to the enactment of a line-item veto.
  President Reagan communicated to us in ways that moved an entire 
nation. He painted pictures that emphasized our greatness, our heroes, 
and our hopes. His policies and his ideas were substantive, but he 
always had a knack for conveying a symbolism that helped Americans 
understand where he was taking us.
  No one in this Chamber would ever try to compete with the style of 
President Reagan, but the symbolism of the vote on the line-item veto 
should not be lost. The House is scheduled to pass the line-item veto 
on Monday, February 6, Ronald Reagan's 84th birthday. We will deliver 
the Democrat President a budget-cutting device of surgical precision, a 
tool the Democrat Congress denied Ronald Reagan for 8 years.

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