THE DAILY FED
President to Spare DoD Vetoes
President Clinton's advisers have urged him to use his line-item veto sparingly in the $248 billion Defense appropriations bill, according to a report in the Associated Press.
The President had previously indicated that he might veto as much as $1.2 billion worth of projects in the bill, but now is considering a much smaller list of cuts. No major weapons systems are on the list.
"Our guidance was to scrub this to determine what has military value and to cut out those things that don't have military value," a senior administration official familiar with the deliberations told the AP. "Frankly, there isn't very much in that latter category.''
President Clinton will not veto the $720 million Congress added to the defense bill for an Aegis destroyer to be built in Pascagoula, Miss., hometown of Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott, the official said.
President Clinton must decide by the end of the day Tuesday which items he will veto in the bill.
NEXT STORY: The "Black Helicopter Caucus"