[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 7 (Wednesday, February 2, 2000)]
[House]
[Page H170]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     BIENNIAL BUDGET PROCESS WOULD ELIMINATE ELECTION YEAR GRIDLOCK

  (Mr. STEARNS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, I support the biennial budget process. That 
is that we should have: The budget process every 2 years and not every 
year. I have a bill, H.R. 493, to provide such a process. Senator 
Domenici, in the Senate, has a companion bill.
  Why is this an improvement over the current process? I believe that 
by adopting such a measure we would remove all this political in-
fighting partisanship every year, plus all the pork barreling that 
occurs so often.
  What I would like to see is that in the first session we pass the 
first 13 appropriations bills, then in the second session we do 
oversight to find out what has happened with all this legislation that 
we passed. Is it working? The second session could also be reserved for 
looking at the emergency spending.
  I think the current process is very partisan and we should remove it. 
So please support H.R. 493, the biennial budget process.

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