Line Item Veto II

On October 16, 2007, in General, by Neil Stevens

It turns out that there was action on the line item veto this Congress, only it was during the time when I was still taking a break from it all. I missed that the President gave his support to a “Legislative Line Item Veto” in which the President is given a temporary ability to suspend appropriations, long enough to give him time to send a message to the Congress, which then triggers special House and Senate rules requiring the bodies to take up, automatically, bills to rescind those portions of the budget.

I’m guessing it should be Constitutional because it’s almost entirely implemented within the rules of the Senate or the House. The cost of this, of course, is that there is no two-thirds requirement to override the ‘veto.’ But the idea looks like a good start.

It has Congressional support, too. Last year Rep. Hensarling made the case at Red State. In the Senate this year, Sen. Gregg proposed it in S. Amdt. 101 and got 29 co-sponsors for the effort.

So, while the Constitutional Amendment seems to be going nowhere right now, the good fight is being fought.

 

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