Item Veto: Budgetary Savings

Publication Date: May 2005

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

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Research Area: Government

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Abstract:

Congressional interest in an item veto for the President may resurface during the 109th Congress. At a news conference on November 4, 2004, President George W. Bush expressed an interest in receiving item-veto authority "to maintain budget discipline." In early 2005, when the Administration submitted its budget for FY2006, the volume on "Analytical Perspectives" contained a section proposing a line-item veto "linked to deficit reduction." An earlier congressional effort -- the Line Item Veto Act of 1996-- was struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in Clinton v. City of New York (1998). This report examines the potential of an item veto to yield budgetary savings as part of an overall strategy to reduce the budget deficit. Lessons drawn from earlier Administrations indicate that the reductions that can be expected from the exercise of an item veto would likely be of modest dimensions. This report will be updated as necessary.