    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book I)]
    [April 9, 1996]
    [Pages 556-559]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Signing the Line Item Veto Act and an Exchange With Reporters
    April 9, 1996

        The President. Good morning. I want to welcome Senator Nickles and
    Congressmen Cardin, Spratt, Goss, and Solomon here; Governor Romer; Ed
    Lupberger, the chairman of the

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    United States Chamber of Commerce; Marne Obernauer, the vice chairman of
    the American Business Conference; David Keating, the CEO of the National
    Taxpayers Union; Al From, from the Democratic Leadership Council; and
    Fred Greenstein, a distinguished Presidential historian from Princeton
    who has also supported the bill I am signing today.
        It gives me great pleasure today to sign into law the line item
    veto. This is a bipartisan achievement that has been long sought by
    Presidents, long supported by Members of Congress and by Governors. It
    will help us to cut waste and to balance the budget.
        For years, Presidents of both parties have pounded this very desk in
    frustration at having to sign necessary legislation that contained
    special interest boondoggles, tax loopholes, and pure pork. The line
    item veto will give us a chance to change that, to permit Presidents to
    better represent the public interest by cutting waste, protecting
    taxpayers, and balancing the budget.
        We all know that this is needed because too often, as vital bills
    move through Congress, they can become clogged with items that would
    never pass on their own. Presidents often have no choice but to sign
    these bills because of their main purpose. This new law will give the
    President the power to cancel specific spending items and specific tax
    loopholes that benefit special interests. These proposals can then be
    debated and subject to an open vote on the floor of Congress. A fresh
    air of public accountability will blow through the Federal budget.
        This law gives the President tools to cut wasteful spending, and
    even more important, it empowers our citizens, for the exercise of this
    veto or even the possibility of its exercise will throw a spotlight of
    public scrutiny onto the darkest corners of the Federal budget.
        I have advocated the line item veto for a long time. When I was
    Governor, I used it, and it helped us to balance 12 budgets in a row.
    Forty-three of our fifty Governors have the line item veto. Governor
    Romer is with us because so many of the Nation's Governors have
    supported this measure for so long. The line item veto will help us to
    bring common sense to our Nation's Capital, just as it has to State
    capitals all across America.
        Let me say, I am particularly pleased that this measure received
    support from both parties, working together for the public good. That's
    the way we should meet all of our challenges in America, and it's the
    only way we can balance the budget in the right way.
        I am very proud that we have cut the deficit in half since I took
    office. The line item veto will help the President cut the budget
    deficit even further. But we have to pass a 7-year balanced budget and
    to do it in a way that reflects our fundamental values. The Congress and
    the executive branch have now identified over $700 billion of savings
    common to both plans. That is more than enough to balance the budget and
    have a modest tax cut.
        So I hope that we can do what we did with the line item veto: work
    together and pass a good balanced budget plan. That will bring these
    interest rates down; it will reassure the financial markets; and it will
    keep economic growth going in the United States.
        Let me say in closing before I sign the bill that it is customary
    for a President to give the pens he uses to sign a bill into law to
    those who did the most for its passage. So I am honored today to send
    the very first four pens that are used here to the former Presidents who
    also made the line item veto their cause, President Reagan and President
    Ford, President Carter, President Bush. I thank them, and our country
    thanks them. Their successors will be able to use this power that they
    long sought to eliminate waste from the Federal budget, to advance our
    values and protect our priorities as we move into the 21st century.
        Thank you.

    [At this point, the President signed the legislation.]

    Separation of Powers Doctrine

        Q.  Doesn't this transcend the Founding Fathers' separation of
    powers and give the President too much power?
        The President. I don't think so. We've worked hard to--we anticipate
    that it will be challenged. We've worked hard to provide for a means for
    it to be resolved quickly. But this leaves ultimate hands in the
    authority of the Congress. They can take all these separate issues back
    and vote on them separately. And I think all of us believe that as long
    as that is done, that we don't violate the constitutional separation of
    powers doctrine.
        And the constitutions of our various States are modeled pretty
    closely on the Federal Constitution. They all have separation of powers

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    doctrines, and the Governors have had this authority in almost all the
    States and have used it well and without any upsetting of the
    constitutional framework.
        As long as the practical impact of this is to force these matters to
    be considered separately, I don't think there's any question that it's
    not a violation of the separation of powers. Now of course, others in
    authority and the judicial branch will have their opportunity to say
    differently, but I believe it will be upheld.

    Liberia

        Q. Mr. President, what's the latest word you have on the situation
    in Liberia? And will you be forced to order Americans evacuated from
    Liberia?
        The President. Well, let me say, first of all, since the--for the
    last several days we've been keeping very close watch on it. We have a
    number of Americans there in Monrovia, and we have put in place the
    pieces necessary to do everything possible to assure their safety. And
    we're watching it very closely. We have not made a decision from here.
    I'm not sure we should make a decision from here on their evacuation.
    We're working with the Embassy, and we're being guided in significant
    measure by what they know to be the facts on the ground there. But we
    have tried to put in place backup measures which would permit us to
    protect the Americans as quickly as possible, should that become
    necessary.
        Q. Have you received any assurances on their safety?
        The President. Well, we've done the best we could. You know, it's
    hard for anybody to assure their safety in the sense that conflict is
    going on in the capital. But we believe that we've made the right
    decision so far with regard to their situation, and we're watching it
    very closely.

    Line Item Veto

        Q. Mr. President, the critics of the line item veto have said that
    it will allow a President to wheel and deal with a Senator or a
    Congressman or a group of Senators or Congressmen and to threaten them
    with this power. What could you say--not to question your integrity or
    whatever--what would you say to the American people that you would not
    and your successors would not abuse this power?
        The President. Well, first of all, every power given to the Congress
    or to the President or to the courts is, I suppose, susceptible of some
    abuse, and we have a system of checks and balances there. My argument
    is, number one, there's obviously some negotiations that go on over
    legislation all the time now--and almost always, by the way, fully
    reported by you in the press, whether we like it or not. [Laughter]
        Number two, keep in mind, the protection--the protection the Members
    have is that if the President goes overboard and says, ``If you don't
    vote for me on some other bill, or this bill, I'm not going to allow
    your project in here''--if the President started doing that, and it was
    unrelated to the real merits of the underlying spending provision, then
    I believe the Congress would respond by passing these bills separately.
        Keep in mind the ultimate protection the Congress has: If the
    President abuses his authority, the ultimate protection the Congress has
    is the clear ability to have these bills voted on separately and
    publicly. And then the President's veto gets singled out. The President
    could veto that spending bill again, too. Then the President would be
    ultimately held accountable by the people, through the reporting of the
    process in the press.
        And let me also say that I found--you know, I was a Governor for
    quite a long time before I came here, and what I found was--and I'm sure
    Governor Romer could corroborate this--is that once this mechanism is in
    place and people understand that the Executive is prepared to use it, it
    becomes necessary to use it less, that its main benefit after a few
    years is that it exists in reserve, because it changes the whole shape
    of the budget negotiations and makes these bills less subject to this
    sort of catch-all spending.
        Now, it will take some years, perhaps, for that to happen here, but
    we are doing this for the long run. None of us who have supported this--
    and I'm sure the representatives from the business groups, the taxpayers
    unions, and others would say the same thing--none of us have ever
    pretended that this was some sort of miraculous cure-all. But we believe
    it will put discipline into this budget, and it will really help over
    the long run to give the American people a kind of budgeting process
    they need, as well as reducing waste and helping to move the budget into
    balance.
        Thank you.

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        Q. Are you sure you will be using it next year?
        The President. Well, that's up to the bosses out there. But I'll
    tell you this, I was more than happy--the majority in the Congress
    wanted to wait until January to put it in, for their own reasons, and
    when I was asked about it, without a moment's hesitation, I said yes.
    That was a reasonable compromise for me.
        I think this is so important that we shouldn't--if they want to take
    it out of the context of this year's elections and the fall's budget
    negotiations, I think it is so important to get into the law for the
    long run it was fine with me. I was very happy to do that. I don't have
    any problem with it. We did it. It's the right thing to do, and it's
    been done, and we did it together, and that's the way we ought to do
    more things.
        Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:15 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to Gov. Roy Romer of Colorado. S. 4,
    approved April 9, was assigned Public Law No. 104-130.