Chris Cox rallies House GOP to sustain a Bush veto

Rep. Chris Cox of California, chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee, is rallying members of the House Republican Caucus to pledge their support to sustain a presidential veto if President Bush refuses to sign a supplemental spending bill that the Democrat-controlled Senate has weighed down with more than $4 billion in unnecessary spending.

The bill, originally aimed at providing additional emergency funds for the war on terrorism, passed the House at $27.1 billion, the amount the President requested. The House bill also included a provision that would allow the President to waive spending $5 billion of that sum if he later determined it was not needed.

Fiscal discipline is more urgent now than ever, Cox believes, because the CBO is currently projecting a fiscal 2002 budget deficit of $150 billion, and, also in fiscal 2002, non-defense discretionary spending has already soared by nearly 10%.

The Senate, however, not only added to the bill $4.1 billion in non-defense-related projects that are earmarked for specific senators' states, it also stripped some of the funds the President had requested for national defense purposes.

Office of Management and Budget Director Mitch Daniels has indicated the President may veto the supplemental if the Senate version of the bill prevails in conference. The President needs to know that congressional Republicans will stand with him and sustain such a veto.

Last week, Cox circulated a letter to Bush among his House Republican colleagues addressing this point. The letter assures Bush that the lawmakers will sustain the President's veto of any supplemental spending bill that's higher than the $27.1 billion the President requested or that provides less than he requested for fighting the war on terrorism or rebuilding New York.

So far, 130 House members-128 Republicans, Democrat Charles Stenholm (Tex.) and Independent Virgil Goode (Va.)-have signed the letter. Only 145 votes are needed to sustain a veto. That means Cox needs 15 more members to sign.

Below is a list of all House Members who have already signed the letter. If your congressman is not on the list, urge him to sign up now. You can get the number for his home district office from your local directory, or seek him out personally at a July 4th event. Or you can call his Washington, D.C., office through the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

Copyright Human Events Publishing, Inc. Jul 1, 2002
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