Statement on the House of Representatives Action on the Federal Budget Agreement

I am deeply disappointed by and disturbed about the vote taken in the House of Representatives this afternoon which is designed to undo the pay-as-you-go enforcement mechanism just legislated in the recently enacted budget agreement. The vote occurred along strictly partisan lines. While the Democrats in the House tried to dress up their action, the inescapable point is that their purpose is to break the agreement that was negotiated and passed into law.

Changing the House rules with a purely party-line vote is neither fair nor right. That they have sought to break the budget agreement in what is virtually their first act of the 102d Congress puts in serious doubt whatever they might say or promise the American people on other significant issues in the upcoming session.

The provision the House Democrats would undo today is a key to enforcing the controls on Federal spending contained in the agreement, and uncontrolled spending simply creates excuses for their raising taxes.

This matter is so fundamental to public confidence in the budget agreement and in the Government itself that I must state again, unequivocally, that I will veto any bill that contains the language specified in the rule passed by the House Democrats this afternoon.