[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Page 8901]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      DISCRETIONARY SPENDING CAPS

  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, when our colleagues arrive, I will be 
pleased to yield the floor to them, but I will be offering, after 3 
o'clock, along with Senator Claire McCaskill, my Democratic colleague 
from Missouri, an amendment we voted on before in the Senate. It is an 
amendment that would establish 3-year discretionary spending caps, 
limits on how much we can spend, how much debt we can run up. To 
violate those limits, it would take a two-thirds vote of the Senate and 
the House to pass. So this is a spending limitation amendment that will 
have some teeth to it.
  It will allow us to have in effect a budget because it looks like, 
even in light of the incredibly disastrous financial crisis we are in, 
we will not pass a budget this year. We need to do that. But the House 
has not even moved one. One has been moved out of committee on a 
straight party-line vote, but there are indications we may not move it 
in the Senate, and if the House does not move, we will not have a 
budget.
  What our amendment would do is help fill that gap. That is another 
reason for it. It would set spending limits for 3 years. The limits we 
would set are the limits President Obama submitted as spending limits 
last time. I recall, of my colleagues, 59 Senators voted for it, 1 
short of moving through the Senate, a few weeks ago. I will talk about 
that at 3.
  I see my colleague is here, Senator Johanns. I will be pleased to 
yield the floor. We will talk about this amendment later.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Nebraska is 
recognized.

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