Handing the presidency unprecedented spending power, President Clinton Monday signed the line-item veto bill and said it would help slash "special-interest boondoggles, tax loopholes and pure pork."
Four pens used to sign the historic legislation were dispatched to former Presidents Reagan, Ford, Carter and Bush - all of whom sought the authority to cut specific items from spending bills."I thank them and our country thanks them," Clinton said in an Oval Office ceremony. "Their successors will be able to use this power that they long sought to eliminate waste from the federal budget."
The new law, which fulfills a GOP "Contract With America" promise, allows the president to carve out provisions from spending bills - even while signing the legislation.
Until now, Congress had jealously guarded its power over federal purse strings, turning back more than 200 attempts since the days of Ulysses S. Grant to give the president a line-item veto.
It does away with a requirement, in place since the nation's founding, that a president must approve or reject legislation in its entirety.
Opponents characterized it as a dangerous ceding to the executive branch of Congress' power to spend tax money, and argued that it would take a constitutional amendment to transfer such authority from one branch to another.
A federal employees' union said Tuesday it will go to court to challenge the constitutionality. The National Treasury Employees' Union called the measure "a device that subverts the Constitution's separation of powers."
Seated at his desk, the president said, "For years, presidents of both parties have pounded this very desk in frustration at having to sign necessary legislation that contains special-interest boondoggles, tax loopholes and pure pork.
"The line-item veto will give us a chance to change that," he said.
In 1985, Ronald Reagan pleaded for a line-item veto, promising: "Then I'll make the cuts; I'll take the responsibility - and the heat . . . and I'll enjoy it."
Despite questions about constitutionality, Congress decided the president needed a new tool to combat the federal deficit. Future presidents will be able to strike out individual items from spending bills, including appropriations, narrowly targeted tax breaks covering 100 or fewer people and new or expanded entitlements, such as Medicare or veterans' benefits.
But just like vetoes of entire bills, a line-item veto can be overridden by a two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress.
Clinton said Congress' power to override line-item vetoes will protect against a president abusing the new tool.
"If the president goes overboard and says, `If you don't vote for me on some bill, I am not going to allow your project in here,' then I believe the Congress would respond by passing these bills separately," Clinton said. He added that the president would be "singled out" if he did abuse the privilege.
The bill takes effect Jan. 1 - the last month of Clinton's term but too late for him to use it. Clinton and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, decided to delay the effective date so the law would not become a presidential campaign issue.