House Republicans are fuming after discovering a provision buried in the government funding deal that could hand certain GOP senators a six-figure payday. Oklahoma Republican Rep. Tom Cole told reporters he was “surprised” to learn the shutdown deal included language allowing senators to sue the federal government for secretly accessing their phone or email records. “Did I know about this provision in the bill? No,” Cole, who is also House Appropriations Chair, said. “Do I think it needs to be i
With line item vetoes we’d never pass another appropriations bill and we shouldn’t. If the president can just mark out whatever he doesn’t want in a budget and keep the rest then legislative negotiations are meaningless. Influencing the power of the purse is basically the only power that the minority party has in congress and with a line item veto the only real option they have for exercising that power is to shut it down completely.
I would think getting 66% would override line item veto. Just like it does any other veto. If you can’t get 66% of the vote for something, maybe it’s not worth stuffing into the bill in the first place.
Funding bills are fucjed anyway. It’s a shame we don’t have a party that’s interested in reforming the process so we don’t have these repeated shutdowns.