Moving systematically through its "Contract With America," the Republican-controlled House is ready to begin overhauling last year's crime bill after approving a measure designed to let the president weed out wasteful spending.
"It's an important step on a bipartisan basis to do it for the president of the United States, without regard to party or ideology," House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Monday night shortly before passage of the measure, which would permit rejection of individual spending items within larger bills. The vote was 294-134, with more than one-third of House Democrats - 71 - joining 223 Republicans in favor. (Utah Reps. Jim Hansen, Bill Orton and Enid Waldholtz voted for the measure.)Now, a president must sign or veto an entire bill that often provides billions of dollars for hundreds of individual programs.
The vote allows GOP leaders to check another item off their 100-day "Contract With America" agenda. At the same time, it sets the stage for a strong battle over the measure in the Senate, where opponents say it would cede too much power to a president.
"There are people over there who desperately want to protect pork," Gingrich, R-Ga., said.
Next up in the House: a series of bills to make changes in last year's bitterly fought crime law. The aim would be to give punishment and deterrence greater emphasis over the crime-prevention programs contained in last year's bill. One of two measures on Tuesday's schedule would require anyone convicted of a federal crime to pay full restitution to the victim. Another would give prosecutors greater leeway in using evidence seized in violation of constitutional protections, so long as police were acting in good faith.
"There's no way we're going to solve the crime problem, but we can make it a lot tougher on criminals and set the stage for assisting the states in creating more prisons and having tougher sentences and short-circuiting endless appeals," said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill.
Gingrich and the Republicans have put off until spring a bill that Clinton has vowed to veto: a repeal of last year's ban on certain types of assault-style weapons.
Clinton is a strong advocate of the line-item veto, however, and is expected to sign the measure if it reaches his desk.
Rep. Martin Sabo, D-Minn., echoing concerns expressed by others, said the line-item veto bill "transfers incredible power to the president to modify spending decisions of the Congress," including not only highway projects often cited by critics of "pork-barrel spending" but also education and other programs.
But Republicans and many Democrats said Congress had failed to control spending, and it was time to strengthen the hand of the president - any president.
Hansen, R-Utah, said, "This is historic. The Republican majority overwhelmingly has handed a line-item veto to a Democratic president. This is proof of our will-ingness to work together to reduce wasteful spending."
Waldholtz, R-Utah, added it will allow cutting "wasteful provisions in otherwise popular bills, such as $500,000 for a Lawrence Welk museum or $35 million to eradicate screw worms in Mexico."
Orton, D-Utah, offered a bill to strengthen the line-item veto by extending it to highway contracts - one of the most notorious forms of pork. But it failed 360-65 (including opposition by Hansen and Waldholtz).
Republicans held the vote on a symbolic date: the 84th birthday of former President Ronald Reagan. Reagan had long campaigned for a line-item veto, and speaker after speaker in the House credited him for the effort.