Line – Item Veto
The power of Line item veto is held by many governors in the United States of America. Line item veto is the power given to the executive to nullify or cancel specific provisions of a bill without vetoing the entire bill. These powers are usually used for budget appropriations. However the line item vetoes, like traditional vetoes, are subject to the possibility of legislative override. Seven states in the US do not contain any form of the Line item veto (Indiana, Maryland, Vermont, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Rhode Island).
In the line Item Veto Act of 1996, the congress granted the President of the US (Bill Clinton at that time) with this power to control “pork barrel spending”. Bill Clinton used it 11 times to strike 82 items from the federal budget. However on Feb. 12, 1998, US district court decided that unilateral amendments of any parts of the statutes violated the US constitution. The ruling was affirmed by the Supreme Court of the US. The case was known as Clinton v. city of New York.
Since the ruling of the Act of 1996 as unconstitutional by the judicial system, the line item veto power of the President has been considered periodically.
The issue of line veto surfaced again during the signing statements controversy under the President Bush administration. In 2006, members of congress raised concerns over the president signing statements which was viewed as a line item veto. President Bush had requested the congress for the Line item veto power in his 2006 State of the Union Address.
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