Topic: Legislation
(What are "political devotions"? Click here.)
An alert from Citizens Against Government Waste:
While H.R. 3973 is a good first step toward forcing our elected representatives to spend within budget guidelines, there is a better bill that will put some real teeth into budget enforcement and help cap the growth of congressional spending.
H.R. 3800 --The Family Budget Protection Act of 2004-- embodies the ideal in budget enforcement reform. We are supporting efforts to substitute this bill for H.R. 3973. Truth be told however, getting the votes needed to substitute the Family Budget Protection Act for the less effective H.R. 3973 will be difficult.
As a backup, some House members will offer parts of the Family Budget Protection Act as amendments to H.R. 3973. Getting these amendments added to H.R. 3973 will create a much stronger budget enforcement bill.
The most important elements of the Family Budget Protection Act include a joint budget resolution, which would convert the current parallel budget resolutions in Congress into a joint House/Senate resolution that is signed into law by the President, forcing the entire Congress to stay within its spending guidelines. The Act also includes an entitlement cap, which would limit the growth of entitlement spending, and an enhanced rescission process, which would provide the President an opportunity to eliminate wasteful spending in appropriations bills, similar to a line- item veto.
Real budget enforcement legislation will protect the family budget from the federal budget. Congress must put taxpayers' interests first and get serious about reducing spending, the deficit, and the growth of government!
Please click here to tell your Representative to support budget enforcement legislation. It's urgent that you act today. A House vote may come as early as tomorrow.
Posted by Tim
at 4:13 PM EDT
