Administration to revive vetoed projects [CNN]

[Jim Choate <ravage@ssz.com>]

Forwarded message:

> Administration Will Help Revive Some Vetoed Projects
> 
>   Aides put the blame on Defense Department for line-item veto mistakes
>   
>     line item
>    
>    WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Oct. 24) -- The Clinton Administration is
>    looking for ways to restore funding for a number of military projects
>    which, aides say, the president mistakenly vetoed.
>    
>    In a letter to Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens
>    (R-Alaska), White House budget chief Franklin Raines blamed the
>    Defense Department for providing faulty data, which he said led to the
>    vetoes.
>    
>    Clinton, wielding his new line-item veto power that allows the
>    president to strike individual items from larger spending bills,
>    vetoed 38 military projects from this year's defense funding bill on
>    Oct. 14. raines
>    
>    Congressional leaders have said despite the administration's mea
>    culpa, they are not about to try to revive the spending projects for a
>    veto-override vote during an election year.
>    
>    But Raines told Stevens, "We are committed to working with Congress to
>    restore funding for those projects that were canceled as a result of
>    inaccuracies in the data provided by the Department of Defense."
>    
>    How? Three possibilities have been floated: One would shift surplus
>    funds from the Defense Department's existing budget; another would
>    include the money in a supplemental spending bill next year; a third
>    would insert the items in a so-called "bill of disapproval."
>    
>    Stevens told reporters the White House had expressed willingness to
>    revive 14 projects, though he put the number of mistakenly vetoed
>    projects at 28.
>    
>    "Maybe even the White House is educable," the Alaskan muttered to
>    reporters after a hearing Thursday on Capitol Hill.