Spending Control Act of 2004

SPENDING CONTROL ACT OF 2004 -- (House of Representatives - June 24, 2004)

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Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Chairman, I thank the chairman for yielding me this time.

I think we all share the zeal to reform the budget process. It is broken.

But in that zeal, I want us to be sure we do not step on the Constitution. One of the hallmarks of that great Constitution that has sustained us so far is the separation of powers between the executive, the legislative, and the judicial. It is the Congress, by the Constitution, that has the prerogative and, in fact, the duty to allocate the spending for the executive branch.

Nowhere in the Constitution does it allow the executive to tell the Congress how the money should be spent, how much money should be spent. The Congress enacts appropriation bills, spending bills, and the executive executes those bills.

The budget resolution that is before us calls for statutory spending limits. Now, I understand the motivation behind that is to try to get something that will cap spending. We all want that. But the President would have to sign such a budget resolution. That brings the executive branch, OMB, into the process of negotiating a figure, a cap, for those years. To me, that violates the separation of powers.

We would not be able to enact a budget resolution, a statutory cap, independent of the White House because the President must sign the bill; and, therefore, he will exact his impressions on that.

So I would hope that the chairman of my committee will follow through on his promise just now to work on a process of bringing spending under control. In the meantime, let us do not step on the U.S. Constitution by requiring a statutory Presidentially signed spending cap.