Precision Veto

Like Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman before him, Dwight Eisenhower met with stony stares when he urged Congress to give him the chance for an "item veto," enabling him to slice an objectionable section out of a bill without killing the whole bill with the veto ax. But last week Ike got rid of an obnoxious provision in a bill by what amounted to an item veto. Oldtimers in Congress said they could not recall anything quite like it.

Facing the President was a Tennessee Valley Authority self-financing bill, approved by both friends and foes of TVA. Friends liked the bill because it authorized TVA to issue up to $750 million in bonds to finance new projects. Foes liked it because it 1) tightly limited TVA's future territorial expansion, and 2) required TVA to start paying back, at $10 million a year, the $1 billion that the U.S. Government has invested in it over the past 25 years. The President approved all three points, but he strenuously objected to a provision empowering Congress to amend future TVA project plans and expenditures by concurrent resolutions, bypassing the President and his veto power. Determined to preserve the constitutional balance of powers between the executive and legislative branches, Ike hinted at a press conference that, though he liked the other provisions, he intended to veto the TVA bill, because the "unwise proviso" would "encroach" on presidential powers--a "very, very serious mistake." What saved the TVA bill was a rare if not unique deal between the President and congressional leaders. House Speaker Sam Rayburn and Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson went to the White House, gave Ike their assurances that if he would sign the bill, they would see to it that Congress passed another bill canceling out the provision he disliked. "We are in full agreement that the independence of the executive and legislative branches must be preserved," said the President as he signed the TVA bill. The Senate promptly carried out its share of the bargain, by voice vote, and the House, which had already adjourned for the week, got ready to act this week.

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