FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 14, 2006

CONTACT: Brendan Daly/Jennifer Crider 202-226-7616

Democratic Leaders Urge Hastert to Reconsider Erroneous Budget Bill

Washington, D.C.– House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and other senior House Democrats sent a letter to Speaker Hastert today urging him to reconsider the Budget Reconciliation Spending conference report. The letter questions the legitimacy of the bill because the President signed a version that was passed by the Senate but which was different from one passed by the House.

Below is the text of the letter, and attached is a separate letter from Congressman Henry Waxman about the constitutional problems with the bill:

February 14, 2006

The Honorable J. Dennis Hastert

Speaker

United States House of Representatives

H-232 The Capitol

Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Speaker Hastert:

We are writing you today about an apparent abuse of the process surrounding the passage of S. 1932, the Budget Reconciliation Spending conference report. 

What started out as an inadvertent mistake by a Senate clerk has become a serious problem because of the actions taken subsequently by the Republican Leadership of the House.  According to a number of legal and Constitutional scholars, these actions jeopardize the legal status of the legislation. A letter from Congressman Henry Waxman, which we have attached, makes clear the fundamental constitutional problem.

Because of the mistake by the Senate clerk, the House and Senate passed different versions of S. 1932.  On February 8th, the President signed into law the Senate version of the bill, despite the fact that the House had never voted on that version of the bill. 

Since you knew about this error many days prior to the House vote on February 1, we can only conclude that the reason that the error was not fixed through a legitimate manner was because it involved another vote that might have failed the second time around.

Before the bill was sent to the President for his signature, the bill was changed yet again from the version the House had narrowly approved.  Even though there were valid means at your disposal to fix the problem, you apparently chose to ignore that option.

The integrity of the House requires that you take two steps to address this serious situation. First, we insist that you inform the American people of what happened and that you recognize the abuse of this process.  Second, we urge you to reconsider this legislation this week and to work with the Senate to ensure that any spending reconciliation bill that is passed is identical in both the House and the Senate, as the Constitution demands, and then presented to the President for his signature.

We sincerely hope you follow this course of action.

Sincerely,

Nancy Pelosi                                                    Steny Hoyer

Democratic Leader                                           Democratic Whip

James E. Clyburn                                              John B. Larson

Chair, Democratic Caucus                                Vice Chair, Democratic Caucus

John D. Dingell                                                

Ranking Member                                         

Committee on Energy and Commerce

Charles Rangel    

Ranking Member

Committee on Ways and Means

Henry A. Waxman                                            John Spratt

Ranking Member                                              Ranking Member

Committee on Government Reform                   Committee on Budget

“ Democrats are united in presenting a New Direction for America, one that will make our nation as strong as its people, one that brings opportunity, security, and prosperity to all Americans. ”

Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi