By:  Eckels                                           H.C.R. No. 67
       72S40220 CCK-D
                                 CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
    1-1        WHEREAS, As the national debt surpasses $4 trillion,
    1-2  continuing massive deficits in the federal budget erode the
    1-3  American economy; and
    1-4        WHEREAS, Governors of 43 states have available to them the
    1-5  authority to veto individual items of appropriation and thereby
    1-6  maintain a prudent balance between the legislative and executive
    1-7  branches, as well as between state expenditures and revenue; and
    1-8        WHEREAS, Presidential item veto authority would give the
    1-9  nation's chief executive the discretionary capability to segregate
   1-10  and eliminate unnecessary individual appropriations, in contrast to
   1-11  the present situation in which the only options are to approve or
   1-12  veto legislation in its entirety; and
   1-13        WHEREAS, James Miller, former director of the Office of
   1-14  Management and Budget, estimates that presidential item veto
   1-15  authority, if available and applied to the elimination of wasteful
   1-16  appropriations, could have saved the nation $450 billion over the
   1-17  period from 1982 to 1989; and
   1-18        WHEREAS, Future savings of that magnitude would go far toward
   1-19  erasing the current federal deficit, easing the total tax burden,
   1-20  stimulating productive investment, and assisting the fiscal health
   1-21  of state and local governments; and
   1-22        WHEREAS, Legislators of this state, long accustomed to the
   1-23  item veto authority conferred by the Texas Constitution, join in
   1-24  support of a constitutional amendment to refine
    2-1  executive-legislative relations at the national level and to
    2-2  improve the fiscal integrity of the federal government; now,
    2-3  therefore, be it
    2-4        RESOLVED, That the 72nd Legislature of the State of Texas,
    2-5  4th Called Session, 1992, hereby apply to the Congress of the
    2-6  United States to call a convention for the specific and exclusive
    2-7  purpose of proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United
    2-8  States to grant item veto authority to the president of the United
    2-9  States; and, be it further
   2-10        RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
   2-11  copies of this resolution to the speaker of the house of
   2-12  representatives and to the president of the senate of the United
   2-13  States Congress, and to all members of the Texas delegation to the
   2-14  congress, with the request that this resolution be officially
   2-15  entered in the Congressional Record as an application to the
   2-16  Congress of the United States of America under Article V of the
   2-17  Constitution of the United States; and, be it further
   2-18        RESOLVED, That official copies of this resolution be prepared
   2-19  for the presiding officers of the legislatures of the other states
   2-20  for their consideration.