Bush will crusade against earmarks

President Bush, delivering his final State of the Union address, will call tonight for a new campaign to sharply curtail earmarks, pledging to veto legislation that does not cut them in half as he lays out a program for his final year in office, a senior advisor said.

The speech to a joint session of Congress and a nationwide television audience will establish goals that administration officials argue can be achieved despite the contentiousness of a year that will be focused on choosing his successor.

Among the proposals Bush is expected to push will be one to provide up to $300 million in federal assistance to help low-income parents send their children to private, parochial or out-of-district public schools, rather than keep them in underperforming public schools.

The White House said the program, which would require congressional approval, would function much like the Pell Grants that help students pay for public and private college education.

Among other domestic programs Bush will present, said White House Counselor Ed Gillespie, will be one intended to promote research in the use of adult skin cells that may be able to function similarly to embryonic stem cells, with the goal of using them to cure various illnesses.

The earmark proposal could have a broad impact on the way the federal government does business, forcing Congress to cut back on the practice of slipping into appropriations bills spending for pet projects in individual congressional districts.

In a preview of the speech, Gillespie said Bush had not vetoed earlier legislation containing earmarks because he felt that he had not given Congress fair warning of his intention at the start of the legislative process.

That will end this year, Gillespie said.

He said Bush would issue an executive order on Tuesday outlining his plan, and that under the regulations governing such orders, it would remain in effect until a future president modifies it or lifts it – a politically difficult course for a president to follow.

But the White House advisor said Bush, recognizing political realities, was not planning to issue a strong call for completing some of the most difficult unfinished business of his presidency: overhauling Social Security and immigration laws.

He said Bush would make a pitch for making permanent the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, but was offering no new tax proposals, other than those encompassed in the economic stimulus package worked out with House leaders last week.

james.gerstenzang@latimes.com