LINE-ITEM VETO WINS SENATE OK, 69-31.Byline: David E. Rosenbaum The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times By an overwhelming majority, the Senate voted Wednesday night to cede much of Congress' authority over federal spending to the White House beginning next year. The historic legislation, a central part of Republican dogma, is sure to be passed by the House within days and to be signed by President Clinton, who supports it without reservation, as have all his recent predecessors. But equally certain is the prospect that its constitutionality will be immediately challenged in court. The measure, approved by a vote of 69 to 31, would give the president what is known as a line-item veto line-i·tem veto n. Authority, as of a government executive, to reject provisions of a bill individually. Also called item veto. - the power to strike out specific parts of spending bills and some tax measures passed by Congress without vetoing the entire legislation. In an assessment that went unchallenged, Sen. Mark O. Hatfield of Oregon, the chairman of the Appropriations Committee In the United States government, the Appropriations Committee can refer to either:
But the Republican sponsors said that Congress had proved itself unable to control excessive spending, and that the president needed this new tool to bring the budget under control. By allowing the national debt to grow to nearly $5 trillion, said Sen. John McCain For McCain's grandfather and father, see John S. McCain, Sr. and John S. McCain, Jr., respectively John Sidney McCain III (born August 29, 1936 in Panama Canal Zone) is an American politician, war veteran, and currently the Republican Senior U.S. Senator from Arizona. , R-Ariz., ``it is Congress that has failed the American people An American people may be:
Presidents, McCain continued, have been able to escape responsibility with the excuse that they were forced to sign wasteful spending measures because they were part of a larger bill that they wanted to become law. ``Under a line-item veto,'' he said, ``no one can hide.'' But this was one of the rare occasions in the Senate when the day was carried oratorically, both sides conceded, by a senator on the losing side. Sen. Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia West Virginia, E central state of the United States. It is bordered by Pennsylvania and Maryland (N), Virginia (E and S), and Kentucky and, across the Ohio R., Ohio (W). Facts and Figures Area, 24,181 sq mi (62,629 sq km). Pop. , ever the defender of congressional prerogatives, held the floor for two hours with a monologue he had spent weeks preparing in which he alluded to the fall of Rome, the French Revolution, the British Empire British Empire, overseas territories linked to Great Britain in a variety of constitutional relationships, established over a period of three centuries. The establishment of the empire resulted primarily from commercial and political motives and emigration movements and the framing of the U.S. Constitution. Referring only rarely to notes, he quoted verbatim from the Bible and Aristotle, from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam Omar Khayyam (ō`mär kīäm`), fl. 11th cent., Persian poet and mathematician, b. Nishapur. He was called Khayyam [tentmaker] probably because of his father's occupation. and Paradise Lost, from Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Aaron Burr and Daniel Webster. His once coal-black hair turned snow-white, his once powerful hands now shaky, Byrd, a 78-year-old Democrat, has lost none of his voice and, after 37 years in the Senate, none of his passion for Congress. ``It is ludicrous - nay, it is tragic - that we are about to substitute our own judgment for that of the Framers with respect to the control of the purse and the need to check the executive,'' he declared. ``Yet, that is precisely what we are about to do here today. We are about to succumb, for political reasons only, to the mania which has taken hold of some in this and the other body to put that most political of political inventions, the Contract With America In the historic 1994 midterm elections, Republicans won a majority in Congress for the first time in forty years, partly on the appeal of a platform called the Contract with America. Put forward by House Republicans, this sweeping ten-point plan promised to reshape government. , into law.'' The line-item veto was indeed one of the top items in the Contract, the platform for Republicans who ran for and won control of Congress two years ago. The House and Senate passed separate versions of the measure early last year. But then the matter was laid aside, partly because of differences among Republicans but mostly because they were reluctant to give such new authority to a Democratic president. Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas, the Republican leader, who hopes to be president himself next year, got the measure back on track this month. In addition to Hatfield, the Republicans who voted against the measure were William S. Cohen cohen or kohen (Hebrew: “priest”) Jewish priest descended from Zadok (a descendant of Aaron), priest at the First Temple of Jerusalem. The biblical priesthood was hereditary and male. of Maine and James R. Jeffords of Vermont. |
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