[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 80 (Tuesday, June 20, 2006)]
[House]
[Page H4225]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       LEGISLATIVE LINE ITEM VETO

  (Mr. HENSARLING asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge passage of the 
Legislative Line Item Veto Act. It provides a budget savings tool that 
almost every governor in the Nation already possesses. It will enable 
the President to identify questionable and wasteful earmark projects 
that have been slipped into spending bills so that Congress can vote 
separately on their merits.
  Surely, Mr. Speaker, at a time of war, historic national debt, and 
record high tax revenues, it doesn't seem too much to ask that 
legislators show a little bit more accountability on how the people's 
money is spent. Just last month the Social Security and Medicare 
trustees reported that both Social Security and Medicare are going 
broke sooner than expected, and, thanks to Democrats' stonewalling, $2 
trillion have been added in unfunded obligations.
  We must have some fiscal restraint. The line item veto will help pull 
back the curtain on the earmarking process, which some have termed the 
gateway drug to spending addiction. By requiring specific votes, it 
will make it harder for Congress to spend millions of taxpayer dollars 
on railroads to nowhere, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and indoor rain 
forests.
  Let us enact the line item veto.

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