Blue Dogs Introduce the Budget Enforcement Legislative Tool “BELT” Act of 2010

Today, under the leadership of Idaho Representative Walt Minnick, members of the fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition continued the roll out of their blueprint for fiscal reform with the introduction of the Budget Enforcement Legislation Tool "BELT" Act of 2010. This commonsense legislation would require Congress and the president to work cooperatively to eliminate spending programs that are duplicative, inefficient, and outdated.

"There is no greater threat to our nation's security and stability than our national debt and the unwillingness of some politicians to tackle the problem," Minnick said. "This bill will force Congress to deal with reckless spending and do so in a way that offers real accountability to the American people."

Known as "expedited rescission," this commonsense budget enforcement tool passed the House with broad bipartisan support in the early 90's, and has been successful in helping members of Congress and the administration to identify and eliminate wasteful and unnecessary government spending.

Specifically, the BELT Act of 2010 would:

- Give the president three days after signing an appropriations act to submit a list of proposed budget cuts to Congress.
- Require Congress to act on the President's list of proposed cuts in a timely manner by an up or down vote in both chambers.
- Give Congress and the president the ability to reduce or eliminate earmarks.
- Allow Congress and the president to zero-out unauthorized programs and reduce an authorized program's budget up to 25 percent.
- Allow the executive branch to pinpoint wasteful pork spending, while maintaining the ability of the majorities of the House and Senate to exercise their will on specific spending items with an up or down vote.

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