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[Congressional Bills 104th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 61 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

104th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. RES. 61

  Expressing the sense of the Senate that the President currently has 
     authority under the Constitution to veto individual items of 
  appropriation and that the President should exercise that authority 
      without awaiting the enactment of additional authorization.

_______________________________________________________________________

                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

             January 17 (legislative day, January 10), 1995

 Mr. Specter submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 
                     the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION

 
  Expressing the sense of the Senate that the President currently has 
     authority under the Constitution to veto individual items of 
  appropriation and that the President should exercise that authority 
      without awaiting the enactment of additional authorization.

Whereas article I, section 7, clause 2 of the Constitution authorizes the 
        President to veto bills passed by both Houses of Congress;
Whereas article I, section 7, clause 3 of the Constitution authorizes the 
        President to veto every ``Order, Resolution, or Vote'' passed by both 
        Houses of Congress;
Whereas during the Constitutional Convention, Roger Sherman of Connecticut 
        opined that article I, section 7, clause 3 was ``unnecessary, except as 
        to votes taking money out of the Treasury'';
Whereas the language of article I, section 7, clause 3 was taken directly from 
        the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts of 1780;
Whereas the provision of the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 that was 
        included as article I, section 7, clause 3 of the United States 
        Constitution vested in the Governor of Massachusetts the authority to 
        veto individual items of appropriation contained in omnibus 
        appropriations bills passed by the Massachusetts Legislature;
Whereas the Governor of Massachusetts had enjoyed the authority to veto 
        individual items of appropriation passed by the legislature since 1733;
Whereas in explaining the purpose of the constitutional veto power, Alexander 
        Hamilton wrote in The Federalist No. 69 that it ``tallies exactly with 
        the revisionary authority of the council of revision'' in the State of 
        New York, which had the authority to revise or strike out individual 
        items of appropriation contained in spending bills;
Whereas shortly after the new Federal Constitution was adopted, the States of 
        Georgia, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Kentucky adopted new Constitutions 
        which included the language of article I, section 7 of the Federal 
        Constitution, and allowed their Governors to veto individual items of 
        appropriation on the basis of these provisions;
Whereas the contemporary practice in the States is probative as to the 
        understanding of the framers of the Constitution as to the meaning of 
        article I, section 7, clause 3;
Whereas President Washington, on a matter of presidential authority, exercised 
        the prerogative to shift appropriated funds from one account to another, 
        effectuating a line-item veto;
Whereas President Jefferson considered appropriations bills to be permissive and 
        refused on at least two occasions to spend funds appropriated by the 
        Congress: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
            (1) the Constitution grants to the President the authority 
        to veto individual items of appropriation; and
            (2) the President should exercise that constitutional 
        authority to veto individual items of appropriation without 
        awaiting the enactment of additional authorization.
                                 <all>
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