So Why Are the Democrats Changing their Own Pay-go Rules?
Mar 29, 2007 10:10 AM EST
As CQ reported yesterday, just three months after taking the majority, Democrats are going to amend the very budget rules they created to promote fiscal responsibility. The Democrats say they are amending these rules to keep Republicans from being able to amend bills, I think they are doing it to spend more money. Either way, Americans are getting a raw deal.
Click here to read the story or read excerpts below:
Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer said Tuesday that during the upcoming two-week recess he will craft changes in the pay-as-you-go spending rules adopted in January (H Res 6) so that the GOP can no longer blindside the majority with broad and politically loaded motions to redraft legislation….
The GOP has made 19 motions to recommit bills, and has been successful six times. They might have added a seventh to that string, but a bill providing for a vote in the House for the District of Columbia (
HR 1433) was withdrawn from floor debate to avoid a vote on a Republican motion regarding gun laws….
Democratic leaders said the bill will return to the floor in April, after new House rules have been adopted….
"The majority should try to figure out how to debate bills rather than further minimize procedures available to the minority," said Minority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo.…
"No matter how they do it, they’d be eroding at least decades of germaneness precedents and rolling back the minority’s ability to offer motions to recommit," one Republican aide said.
John Campbell
Congressman John Campbell was first elected to Congress in December of 2005. He brings with him to Washington a quarter century of experience in the business world and a record of accomplishment in both chambers of the California Legislature.
Congressman John Campbell represents California’s 48th Congressional District which encompasses Newport Beach, Irvine, Tustin, Lake Forest, Laguna Beach, Laguna Hills, Laguna Woods, Laguna Niguel, Aliso Viejo, Dana Point and parts of San Juan Capistrano and Santa Ana.
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