[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 158 (Monday, November 10, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2300-E2301]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


  DISAPPROVING CANCELLATIONS TRANSMITTED BY PRESIDENT OCTOBER 6, 1997

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                               speech of

                          HON. SANDER M. LEVIN

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                       Saturday, November 8, 1997

  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 2631 to 
disapprove the President's line-item veto of 38 military construction 
projects.
  Despite the recent action by Congress to set the budget on a glide 
path to balance, we must remain vigilant against wasteful spending. 
Nothing undermines confidence in Congress so much as when our 
constituents pick up the morning newspaper and read about how some 
well-positioned Member of Congress inserted some favored pork barrel

[[Page E2301]]

project into an appropriation bill in the dead of night.
  Clearly, this is not the case with the 38 military construction 
projects we are considering today. The White House admits that many of 
these projects were canceled in error on the basis of inaccurate 
information. Further, nearly all the projects were included in the 
Pentagon's long-term defense plan. These projects are not examples of 
the type of wasteful and excessive spending that the line-item veto was 
intended to address.
  I have long supported giving the President the tools necessary to 
root out wasteful spending projects. In previous years I voted to grant 
the President a form of the line-item veto to rescind unnecessary 
spending; under this version, it would take a majority of the House and 
Senate to disapprove the President's veto. I continue to believe that 
it is inadvisable to give any President a line-item veto that requires 
two-thirds of both Houses of Congress to override. The requirement for 
a supermajority to override unwisely shifts too much power to the 
executive branch.
  Despite this concern, I intend to fully support the President's veto 
of truly wasteful spending projects. As I have indicated, the 38 
military construction projects before us today do not meet that test.
  I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 2631.

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