Weak line-item veto is in works

The idea is to keep a watch on 'pork barrel' spending.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congress is moving to give President Bush and his successors greater power to try to weed bills of certain spending, though the new power would pale compared with the line-item veto law struck down by the Supreme Court in 1998.
The House Budget Committee approved by a 24-9 vote Wednesday a bill to allow the president to single out wasteful items contained in appropriations bills he signs into law, and it would require Congress to vote on those items again.
Under the proposal, it would take a simple majority in both House and Senate to approve the items over the president's objections.
The idea is that wasteful "pork barrel" spending would be vulnerable since Congress might vote to reject such items once they are no longer protected by their inclusion in bigger bills that the president has little choice but to sign.
1996 line-item veto
This is a far weaker version of the line-item veto that Republicans in Congress gave President Clinton in 1996. That bill allowed Clinton to strike items from appropriations and tax bills unless Congress mustered a two-thirds margin to override him. The bill was found unconstitutional since it allowed the president to amend laws passed by Congress.
Most members of Congress simply said good riddance. Clinton's use of the line-item veto against a military projects bill had provoked howls of outrage on Capitol Hill and Congress promptly overrode them.
But Bush proposed the new, watered-down version in March in concert with conservatives such as Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., sponsor of Wednesday's bill.
"Even if the president identifies numerous pork-barrel projects ... he is unlikely to use his veto power because it must be applied to the bill as a whole and cannot be used to target individual items," said Ryan. "Does he veto an entire spending bill because of a few items of pork when this action may jeopardize funding for our troops, for our homeland security or for the education of our children?"
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