At last night's House Rules Committee hearing, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) defended the CR.
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NewsTranscript
00:00I am more than happy to leave
00:02when you're ready to excuse me.
00:04Thank you, Madam Chair.
00:05I yield back.
00:06Thank you, Ms. Houchen.
00:08I don't want to prolong this meeting too much,
00:11but I want to associate myself with the comments
00:14from Ms. Houchen
00:16and from my colleagues who have already spoken.
00:19I think fear-mongering is really a tame word
00:26to say what has gone on here today
00:29from our colleagues across the aisle.
00:31It's worse than fear-mongering.
00:34I'm glad we're not being shown on C-SPAN
00:40because anybody who wants to learn something about civics
00:43in this country and the laws in this country
00:46sure would get a distorted picture of it.
00:50I do want to make one quick sort of affirmation
00:59of one thing Ms. Houchen said.
01:04When we present facts, we are not lecturing.
01:08We are bringing the facts out,
01:11and I think that's what we've done.
01:13I do want to ask the chairman a question.
01:18A lot has been made of the fact that
01:23in the Veterans Toxic Exposure Fund,
01:28you've mentioned that money for FY26
01:32was not included in this continuing resolution
01:36as evidently it has been in others.
01:38Is that correct?
01:39That's correct.
01:41Is there any money for FY26
01:44in any of the other line items here?
01:48Boy, you're asking a big question.
01:51It's not typical.
01:53As a rule, yeah.
01:54No, it's unusual when we do these things,
01:57but again, certainly not unprecedented.
02:00No, by and large, this is money for FY25.
02:04And that's what we should be putting out in this
02:08to be appropriate, correct?
02:10In my view, yes.
02:12But look, I also put stock in the argument
02:15that my friends have made.
02:17There's certain critical services.
02:18Usually you like to forward funds
02:20so they're not at risk.
02:21Indian Health Services.
02:22Well, I worked hard to get that.
02:24I know.
02:25But I'm saying Indian Health Services
02:27and some other veterans programs are advanced funded.
02:30I hear you, but I have to answer.
02:32And I may be incorrect.
02:33I think the rest of veterans is forward funded.
02:38This is a kind of moving target.
02:40We're having a hard time getting our hands around
02:44exactly how severe this problem is.
02:47Did we get a rush of cases at the beginning?
02:51Because there's relatively new benefit.
02:53But again, that's an appropriate thing
02:55for the Appropriations Department to work for.
02:58Look, I voted for the PAC Act,
03:00so I certainly want to make sure it's well funded,
03:03and we will over the course of our normal deliberations.
03:07And I think, again, it's important to talk about
03:11on March 9th, 2024,
03:14President Biden signed into law
03:16H.R. 4366, Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024.
03:23Then on March 23rd, 2024,
03:26another bill signed by the president.
03:29And then that got us through December 20th.
03:34And then on December 20th,
03:36we passed H.R. 10545 to take us through March.
03:44Those were not unlawful things that were done.
03:48This has been categorized as an unlawful act
03:54by the House of Representatives, by our colleagues.
03:57So were all of these continuing resolutions unlawful,
04:00Mr. Chairman?
04:01No, they're lawful.
04:02They're certainly within the authority of Congress.
04:04They're not the preferred method.
04:06Preferred method, which I think we all would agree on,
04:08is 12 bills done in full on time.
04:11Our committee produced that product out of the committee
04:15before the August break.
04:17And, you know, I'm not saying we did a great job in the House,
04:23but we did a better job in the Senate,
04:25which didn't pass a single bill, got them across.
04:28So it's something clearly we need to work on.
04:30And, you know, we ought to think about that.
04:32And, again, my colleague and I agree on this.
04:35I wish we had gotten this done before President Trump became president.
04:40You know, he shouldn't have had to be worried about this.
04:43He shouldn't.
04:45I mean, we should have been funded through September 30th.
04:48But we didn't get that done.
04:50I would like to stay within five minutes if I could.
04:53And I want to point out that Section 7,
04:58let me make sure I'm in the right place,
05:03of Article 1, Section 7,
05:06this is where the issue of we have the power of the purse
05:11comes up all the time.
05:14And I think sometimes people have to be reminded
05:16of exactly what this says.
05:18It says, all bills for raising revenue
05:22shall originate in the House of Representatives.
05:26But the Senate may propose or concur with amendments
05:30as on other bills,
05:32every bill which should have passed the House of Representatives,
05:36and the Senate shall, before it become law,
05:38be presented to the President of the United States.
05:41So there's misrepresentation of the role of the House
05:47in some people wanting to say,
05:49we have total control over how the money is spent.
05:53That is not true.
05:55It's just like every other bill,
05:57the bills have to go to the Senate
05:59and then be signed by the President.
06:01Would you yield, Madam Chair?
06:03I want to thank the Chairman and the Ranking Member
06:05for being here today.
06:07And I yield back my time.
06:11Please read Antonin Scalia
06:14on the power of the purse where it goes.
06:17Judge Scalia was not actually a liberal,
06:20flaming liberal activist.
06:22He opined on this.
06:24We thank the panel for being here.
06:26I thank you very much.
06:27And your excuse.
06:29Oh, God, let's misread the Constitution as well.