Date: 2012-02-08
Speaker: VAN HOLLEN (democrat)
Chamber: H

shows on his table. This year we are committed. given the floor time. were going to bring every appropriation bill to the floor under an open rule so that every Member that has a problem with any provision can offer an amendment to have that removed. Its been said that this is constitutional. Mr. VAN HOLLEN said. so lets take that argument away. Not necessarily and not so quickly. In conversations with members of the third branch of government. the judiciary. they have concerns that this may be unconstitutional. because whats required now is that the President presents the judicial request for appropriations. but he cant change it. He just passes it on to Congress. This gives the President a say in lineiteming specific provisions in the judicial request. which may violate both U.S. Code and be unconstitutional. So that question is still out there about the constitutionality of this. But I will tell you. in times of extraordinary circumstances. as we currently have. with a $15 trillion debt. and everyone wants to reduce that debt. nobody more than the members of the Appropriations Committee have reduced spending in the last 2 years. But in times of extraordinary circumstances. we often do unwise things in the name of trying to address that problem. Such is this bill. Most Members have never negotiated an appropriation bill with the Senate. Let me tell you how it works. We would think that the President has no say in the appropriation process until we present him with a bill. When I was negotiating the Interior bill with the Senate. I was not negotiating with the Senate. I was negotiating with the White House. They did not approve anything that was not preapproved by the administration. And we made some deals. and we got some priorities of things that we. on the Republican side. think are important. and the President got some priorities that he thinks are important on his side. Thats called legislating. But now. what you are going to do is say. okay. you make those deals. You get an appropriation bill. Theres going to be things in it I dont like. Theres going to be things in it the administration doesnt like. Theres going to be things in it that nobody in here likes. But now youre going to give the President a second bite at the apple to break that deal. And do you think hes going to take those things that Democrats think are not their priorities and take them out of the bill? Of course not. Hes going to take out Republican priorities and put them for a second vote. And a Republican President would do the same thing to the Democrats. This is going to be partisan politics. And when you say it comes back for Congress to have a final say. once it comes back to overriding a veto or overriding a rescission. it then becomes political. You. on your side of the aisle. in this case. are going to say we have to support our President. Thats what happens. Thats the reality. We. on our side of the aisle. would say the same thing if it were a Republican President. Thats just reality. So what youre breaking down is that balance of power between the administrative branch of government and the legislative branch of government. This is. without a doubt. a step in the wrong direction. Voting for this bill will not make you a budget hawk. And frankly. I dont think it will save any money. But it will make for some good press releases. But dont go out and say that youve reduced Federal spending. and youve taken wasteful spending out of the Federal budget by passing this bill. You havent. What youve done is said. Im willing to sacrifice the legislative authority that was given to us in the Constitution and shift more power to the administrative branch of government. Do you honestly believe that the Founding Fathers would recognize what they built in the Constitution? Do you really think that they would look at the administrative branch of government and say we wanted this kind of Presidency and a weak legislative branch? I dont think so. This is a bad bill. I would vote it down if I were you. I yield back the balance of my time.