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Pomeroy Says Waste-Busting Tool Will Help Reduce Federal Deficit
President’s proposal mirrors Pomeroy anti-deficit bill
Washington,
May 25 -
Congressman Earl Pomeroy called on Congress Tuesday to approve a presidential proposal that would establish a new, expedited tool to cut wasteful spending. The proposal mirrors legislation Pomeroy has introduced with the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition.
The new proposal would allow the president to look through spending bills and identify a list of wasteful projects. The president would send that list back to Congress, which must take an up-or-down vote with no amendments. The proposal would provide a waste-busting tool similar in some ways to the line-item veto, but while avoiding constitutional problems that caused the Supreme Court to strike that tool down.
“If we’re going to get these budget deficits under control, the federal government needs to tighten its belt. This is a proposal that will pull that belt a couple notches tighter,” Congressman Pomeroy said. “It’s too often that we see Congress forced to vote on legislation that is on balance good for the country, but has been tainted by wasteful spending or special interest projects that have no place in the bill. This tool will allow the Administration to identify those projects and put a stop to them without jeopardizing legislation that is important to the country.”
The legislation Pomeroy co-sponsored, the Budget Enforcement Legislative Tool, or BELT, Act, would work this way:
• Give the president three days after signing an appropriations act to submit a list of proposed budget cuts to Congress.
• Require Congress to act on the President’s list of proposed cuts in a timely manner by an up or down vote in both chambers.
• Give Congress and the president the ability to reduce or eliminate earmarks.
• Allow Congress and the president to zero-out unauthorized programs and reduce an authorized program’s budget up to 25 percent.
• Allow the executive branch to pinpoint wasteful pork spending, while maintaining the ability of the majorities of the House and Senate to exercise their will on specific spending items with an up or down vote.
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