
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 27, 1990                   TAG: 9004270851
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/9   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

MEASURE WOULD ALLOW LINE-ITEM VETO

The president would be able to reduce or veto outright individual items within money bills under proposed constitutional amendments approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"Forty-three states give similar authority to their governors and I think it is time to have that at the federal level," Sen. Paul Simon, D-Ill., one of the sponsors, said after the measures won 8-6 approval Thursday.

The committee's action, which came one day after President Bush renewed his call for line-item veto powers, set the stage for Senate floor action.

Senate approval would send the proposals to the House. Approval there would put the issue before the nation's state legislatures.

Lawmakers, seldom enthusiastic about sharing the power of the purse, have been killing line-item veto proposals for more than a century. Simon's office said the Library of Congress reported that nothing similar had emerged from the Senate Judiciary Committee since April 21, 1884.

- Associated Press

by CNB