By Edward Lee Pitts
Washington Bureau
Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue joined a bipartisan group of governors at the White House today to highlight to President Bush how the line item veto power has helped state leaders show fiscal discipline.
“Our states have used it in the right way, not in a punitive way, but in a fiscally responsible way,” said Gov. Perdue.
President Bush and congressional Republican leaders are pushing to reintroduce legislation giving the president the power to strike individual items from bills.
A version of the line item veto passed during the Clinton Administration but was overturned by the courts.
Most regional members of Congress support giving the president the line item veto power. A spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said the senator is working with Democrats to build support for line-item veto legislation but no timetable for bringing it to the floor for a vote has been set.
E-mail Edward Lee Pitts at lpitts@timesfreepress.com
See tomorrow’s Chattanooga Times Free Press for full coverage.
