Gold9472
03-19-2007, 08:44 AM
Bush veto pen, used once, may finally get a workout
http://www.azstarnet.com/news/174269
the associated press
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 03.19.2007
WASHINGTON — George W. Bush, the president with the fewest vetoes in more than a century, is poised to make up for lost time.
In the past week alone, the White House has threatened to veto bills in the Democratic-controlled House dealing with presidential records and protection for whistle-blowers, and a defeated Senate bill that would have set a deadline for troop withdrawal from Iraq.
The White House also warned that a war-spending bill the House will take up this week would face a veto because it contains Iraq-withdrawal language.
Since the Democrats took over Congress in January, the White House has put out 22 position papers on major bills before Congress. Of these, nine contain veto threats aimed at the bills or provisions in them.
In all of 2006, when Republicans ran Capitol Hill, the White House issued 61 such policy statements, with only seven veto threats. Several were reminders not to exceed or tamper with spending ceilings, and two were aimed at spending bills that had wording, later removed, that would have eased U.S. penalties against Cuba.
In July, Bush issued the only veto of his presidency, killing a bill on the use of federal money for stem cell research. House backers of the bill failed to muster the two-thirds majority needed to override the veto.
That is the cleanest veto record since the vetoless presidency of James A. Garfield. He was shot four months after he took office in 1881 and died several months later.
In this session, House bills passed under a veto cloud may die in the Senate, where minority Republicans can exercise filibuster powers. Examples include a bill that would direct the government to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies over Medicare drug prices and a measure that would make it easier for workers to form unions.
Others bills with a better chance of reaching his desk are a revived stem cell proposal, which was passed by the House in its first week this year, and measures that would put in place recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission.
http://www.azstarnet.com/news/174269
the associated press
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 03.19.2007
WASHINGTON — George W. Bush, the president with the fewest vetoes in more than a century, is poised to make up for lost time.
In the past week alone, the White House has threatened to veto bills in the Democratic-controlled House dealing with presidential records and protection for whistle-blowers, and a defeated Senate bill that would have set a deadline for troop withdrawal from Iraq.
The White House also warned that a war-spending bill the House will take up this week would face a veto because it contains Iraq-withdrawal language.
Since the Democrats took over Congress in January, the White House has put out 22 position papers on major bills before Congress. Of these, nine contain veto threats aimed at the bills or provisions in them.
In all of 2006, when Republicans ran Capitol Hill, the White House issued 61 such policy statements, with only seven veto threats. Several were reminders not to exceed or tamper with spending ceilings, and two were aimed at spending bills that had wording, later removed, that would have eased U.S. penalties against Cuba.
In July, Bush issued the only veto of his presidency, killing a bill on the use of federal money for stem cell research. House backers of the bill failed to muster the two-thirds majority needed to override the veto.
That is the cleanest veto record since the vetoless presidency of James A. Garfield. He was shot four months after he took office in 1881 and died several months later.
In this session, House bills passed under a veto cloud may die in the Senate, where minority Republicans can exercise filibuster powers. Examples include a bill that would direct the government to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies over Medicare drug prices and a measure that would make it easier for workers to form unions.
Others bills with a better chance of reaching his desk are a revived stem cell proposal, which was passed by the House in its first week this year, and measures that would put in place recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission.