ABSTRACT
The Line Item Veto Act provided the president with the “power to ‘cancel in whole’ three types of provisions that have been signed into law: ‘(1) any dollar amount of discretionary budget authority; (2) any item of new direct spending; or (3) any limited tax benefit.’ ”2 The act also provided that, when selecting items for “cancellation” the president “must consider the legislative history, the purposes, and other relevant information about the items.”3 Specifically, the president must determine that a cancellation will “(i) reduce the Federal budget deficit; (ii) not impair any essential Government functions; and (iii) not harm the national interest.”4 Upon cancelling a particular spending item, the president was required to notify Congress, which had the authority to issue “a ‘disapproval bill’ ” that would render the cancellation “null and void.”5
