Item veto backers vow to press on

Senate supporters of the line item veto vowed to resurrect the original Senate line item veto plan following Thursday's Supreme Court ruling striking down the version passed by Congress.

"We will make any adjustment and we are back in business," said Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind.

In a 6-3 decision, the court ruled the line item veto violates the section of the Constitution that requires each bill be presented to the president for his signature or veto. The Constitution, the court said, does not allow partial vetoes. However, the court said Congress could amend the Constitution to allow for the line item veto power.

Instead, Coats and Senate Commerce Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., will return to their original plan, which would call for separate enrollment of each individual spending item in an appropriations bill.

"I think separate enrollment would be easier to do and will stand the test of the ruling that the Supreme Court has made," McCain said, while noting that plan was the version of the veto that overwhelmingly passed the Senate.

"We're not going to quit on this issue," McCain said. "It clearly is constitutional."

But Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said the Senate would not have time to consider it this year. "Next year, we might take a look at some earlier language," he said.

On the House side, Rules Chairman Gerald B.H. Solomon, R-N.Y., and Rules Legislative and Budget Process Subcommittee Chairman Porter Goss, R-Fla., said they immediately will take up a new proposal that would meet the constitutional tests specified by the court.

Opponents of the line item veto praised the ruling and vowed to fight any new proposal. "This Constitution is intact," said Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y. "In [the] history of constitutional law, this is by far the most important ruling on the relationship between the legislative and executive branch."

Added Appropriations ranking member Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., "Today we feel the liberties of the American people have been assured."And Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said: "Congress ... tried to bend the Constitution. The court said it would not let it happen."