[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 126 (Friday, September 24, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H8632]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            PRESIDENT'S VETO--A RESPONSIBLE COURSE OF ACTION

  (Mr. VENTO asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. VENTO. Mr. Speaker, I understand that the President's vetoing 
yesterday the tax bill was disappointing to the majority of our 
colleagues in the House. But I would suggest that, given the 
alternatives, there was no other course of action that could 
responsibly be taken.
  The fact is we are less than a week away from the beginning of a 
fiscal year and, by and large, the House and Senate have not even come 
to agreement on most of the major spending bills. We have only 
presented three or four bills to the President really of a 
noncontroversial nature, and most of the controversial issues and big 
issues still have not been resolved even for the next fiscal year.
  So in attempting to try and portray or to put in place tax policies 
that are based on projected revenues and we cannot even deal with 
fiscal year 2000, which begins October 1, I think speaks out loud as to 
the fact that we are not getting our work done and we are not prepared.
  I mean, we should put the decisions in terms of our spending 
policies, the decisions in terms of our revenue policies on the table 
first before we begin to undercut the ability to deal with those 
issues.
  So I commend the President.

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