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Friday, March 17, 2006
Frist to Schedule Debate on Line-Item Veto
As part of their vote-a-rama yesterday, the Senate voted to increase the national debt limit by $781 billion, placing the debt limit at almost $9 trillion. The debt limit vote forced lawmakers to cast politically unpopular votes (because they essentially just added almost $1 trillion to U.S. debt), and a number of them showed their disapproval by threatening Majority Leader Frist that they would force votes on budget-reform amendments, including one on the line-item veto. Any amendments added to the debt limit legislation would have sent it back to the House and potentially could have led to a government default (which is why Frist wanted to avoid it).
The line-item veto legislation that Senators wanted to discuss, is expected to serve as a vehicle for other budget reform proposals. Caving to bipartisan pressure, Frist has agreed to schedule time to debate the issue. It is expected he could schedule up to one week of debate sometime before the August recess.
The line-item veto is a reform which would expedite the rescission process and give more power to President Bush. See this Watcher article for more information). Studies have shown that it would actually save very little, yet at the same time it would transfer some appropriating power from the legislative branch to the executive branch. A number of lawmakers, including the prominent House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-CA) oppose line-item veto legislation, both because of its limited affect on truly affecting budget balances and because of this power transfer. As Lewis said in testimony before a House Rules subcommittee on March 15, "Presidents come and go." If lawmakers wanted to work towards truly balancing the budget books, they would reinstate full PAYGO rules.
Washington Post: Congress Raises Ceiling for Borrowing
Roll Call: Frist Agrees to Hold Debate on Line-Item Veto Legislation
Posted by Becky Lewis
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