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Congressman
Paul Ryan Testifies on Legislative Line-Item Veto Act
WASHINGTON
–
Wisconsin
’s First District Congressman Paul Ryan testified at a congressional hearing
today before the House Rules Committee’s Subcommittee on Legislative and
Budget Process regarding H.R. 4890, the Legislative
Line-Item Veto Act. Last week,
Ryan introduced this bill to give the President a constitutional version of the
line-item veto to make it easier to combat wasteful pork-barrel spending and
unjustified earmarks.
Ryan’s
legislation would give the President the authority to single out unnecessary or
wasteful spending provisions in bills that arrive on his desk after passing
Congress and send these specific line items back to Congress for a timely
up-or-down vote on rescinding them. This
proposal puts the President’s rescission requests on a fast track for
consideration in Congress, while preserving Congress’ power of the purse.
Such expedited rescissions can serve as an effective tool to pinpoint
questionable earmarks and individual spending items, giving Congress the chance
to judge them on their own merits, rather than as part of much broader
legislation.
“This
tool will shed light on the earmarking process and allow Congress to vote up or
down on the merits of specific projects added to legislation or to conference
reports. Not only will this allow
the President and Congress to eliminate wasteful pork-barrel projects, but it
will also act as a strong deterrent to the addition of questionable projects in
the first place. On the other hand,
Members who make legitimate appropriations requests should have no problem
defending them in front of their colleagues if they are targeted by the
President,” Ryan said.
Please
click here to view Congressman Ryan’s prepared testimony regarding H.R. 4890.
Print
Contact: Kate
Matus (202) 226-7326
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