1997 Ron Paul 34:1
Mr. PAUL.
Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the automatic continuing resolution amendment to H.R. 1469, the so-called Supplemental Appropriations for Fiscal Year 1997.
1997 Ron Paul 34:2
Nestled within all the rhetoric and debate surrounding H.R. 1469, the Supplemental Appropriations for Fiscal Year 1997, is an amendment offered to fund national government operations throughout Fiscal Year 1998. Funding that is, at 100 percent of the current level of overspending. This amendment abdicates the responsibility of Congress to legislate and appropriate; that for which Congress was elected by citizens of this country. Rather than accepting the responsibility and corresponding accountability to constituents for voting in favor of or against particular appropriations, this amendment allows Congress, in the name of strategizing against the President and averting blame for a government shutdown, to approve in an autopilot-type approach, Federal spending through the end of fiscal year 1998.
1997 Ron Paul 34:3
This strategy sets a dangerous precedent of bypassing the constitutional checks on governmental powers by minimizing the separate roles of the executive and legislative branches. Rather than a Presidential veto on congressional appropriations—thus demanding a new consensus between the Congress and the Executive—the veto power of the President becomes merely the power to continue funding at a level already burgeoning with spending on constitutionally suspect programs. Once again, Congress grants to the executive branch, powers never intended by the Constitution.
1997 Ron Paul 34:4
The amendment also introduces a dangerous ratchet-up feature in Federal Government spending. For should this precedent be later followed and should Congress ever decide to make amends for its habit of spending
beyond its means, the Presidential veto power then becomes a tool by which the President can ignore the will of Congress absent a two-thirds majority to override the veto. Recent history suggests that Congress is rather unlikely to decrease its spending and this certainly would be much more unlikely in the event a two-thirds majority is required.
1997 Ron Paul 34:5
For these reasons and others, I oppose abdication of congressional responsibility, putting the Federal Government appropriation process on autopilot, and, therefore, approval of the automatic continuing resolution amendment to H.R. 1469.
Notes:
1997 Ron Paul Chapter 34
The title of this chapter was abbreviated here. In Congressional Record it is “1997 EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS ACT FOR RECOVERY FROM NATURAL DISASTERS, AND FOR OVERSEAS PEACEKEEPING EFFORTS, INCLUDING THOSE IN BOSNIA.”
The text of this chapter was inserted in CongressionalRecord as an extension of remarks, but was not spoken on the House floor.
