Wed, Mar 08, 2006 page7

• Bush asks Congress for new veto power

  TRIMMING THE FAT The US president is pushing to be awarded the power to reject specific proposals in budgets passed by Congress to try to reduce pork-barrel spending

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  US President George W. Bush, who has never vetoed legislation, asked the US Congress on Monday to give him a line-item veto that would allow him to propose canceling specific spending plans.

  Lawmakers often tag pet projects on to bills to please constituents in their home states, a practice put into the spotlight recently with the major congressional lobbying scandal and the conviction of a former California Republican representative on bribery charges.

  But Bush's proposal faces hurdles because an earlier version that Congress passed under former president Bill Clinton was rejected by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional because it allowed the president to amend laws passed by Congress.

  Bush said the 1998 court decision "should not be the end of the story," and said the legislation he offered to Congress was crafted in a way to satisfy the court's concerns.

  Bush is pressing for a modified, weaker version. Instead of being able to strike items from bills, he would send one or more items back to Congress for an up-or-down vote.

  Present law permits Congress to ignore these proposed rescissions, but under the Bush proposal lawmakers would have to vote on them within 10 days. If majorities in both the House and the Senate agreed with the president, the cuts would take effect.

  "With this proposal, I think the responsibilities of the two branches would be well balanced in that the president would have the ability to line out an item, but only with the approval of a majority of Congress," White House budget director Joshua Bolten said.

  Democrats, who have criticized Bush's tax cuts as fiscally reckless, said a line-item veto was no panacea for deficits.

  "The Bush administration has spent us into record deficits and piled mountains of debt onto our children," House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said. She added: "Budget experts agree that the line-item veto would do little to control deficits."

  Democratic Senator John Kerry supported the line-item veto proposal, which mirrored one he had previously proposed.

  "Billions of dollars are being wasted on things like research to enhance the flavor of roasted peanuts and the infamous `bridge to nowhere,'" Kerry said.

  Announcing the line-item veto proposal at a swearing-in ceremony for Ed Lazear, his new chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, Bush said it would allow him to take aim at "special-interest spending."

  Conservatives have criticized Bush for the surge in federal spending on his watch.

  One example of a pet project critics often cite is a bridge proposal in Alaska ridiculed as the "Bridge to Nowhere" because it would have served a very small population. The bridge was part of a US$287 billion transportation bill that many conservatives had urged Bush to veto. Bush signed the transportation bill and hailed it as a job-creating measure.

  Spending on the Alaska bridge was later canceled, but the state received the money anyway in its general transportation funds.
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