President Bush has called on the U.S. Senate to grant him line-item veto power as a way to trim unnecessary spending. The power would allow the president to reject parts of a bill.
President Bush in his weekly radio address called for the Senate to act. He said a line-item veto would allow him to remove wasteful spending from a bill while preserving the bill's worthwhile legislation. He proposed a new version of the process. It would allow Congress to vote on items the president wants to have removed from a bill.
House lawmakers on Thursday voted to grant President Bush the line-item veto. President Clinton briefly had the authority during his presidency, before the Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional.