House Backs Line-Item Veto, in Setback to Top Democrats

The House dealt a defeat to its Democratic leaders on Thursday, voting overwhelmingly to bolster the President’s ability to kill individual pork barrel projects and tax breaks buried in huge bills.

Lawmakers ignored pleas from top Democrats that the measure would tip too much power toward the executive branch and chose it over a weaker Democratic version by a 298-121 roll call.

The vote was probably symbolic because opponents in the Senate, led by Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.), have kept similar legislation from coming to a vote.

But the tally represented an unusual election year victory for House deficit hawks of both parties as the chamber begins a series of votes on budget issues.

It also put President Clinton in an embarrassing position. During last year’s campaign, he supported a tough version of the measure, called a line-item veto, but has since backed a weaker version by congressional Democrats.

“We want to end the spending bias and put the bias in favor of reducing the deficit,” said Rep. Timothy J. Penny (D-Minn.), who sponsored the successful measure with Reps. Charles W. Stenholm (D-Tex.) and John R. Kasich (R-Ohio).

The measure would require Congress to vote on a President’s proposals for canceling individual spending items, called rescissions. Currently, lawmakers can kill such proposals by simply not voting on them.

It also would let the President propose eliminating narrow tax breaks for specific people or businesses included in revenue bills. The President cannot now try to kill individual items in tax legislation.

Democratic leaders had offered a weaker alternative, but it died when lawmakers approved the stronger measure. Under it, for the rest of this year only, Congress would have voted on the President’s proposal to cut an individual spending item if he issued his proposal within three days of signing the overall measure into law.

Presidents now must either sign or veto entire spending bills and cannot eliminate individual items in them. They can propose to cancel individual spending projects, but their proposals do not take effect unless the House and Senate approve them within 45 days.