Options for Presidential Powers

Rescission (current law)

Under current law the president can propose to rescind all or part of any spending in an appropriations bill after he has signed the bill.

The rescission takes effect only if both chambers approve it by majority votes. If Congress fails to vote on the proposal, it expires after 45 days, and the money must be spent.* Although Congress can ignore presidential rescission proposals, in practice it usually feels compelled to respond with its own proposals.

Constitutional line-item veto

The line-item veto would give the president substantial new power to control the congressional spending process as long as he maintained a one-third-plus-one minority of either the House or the Senate. If granted this authority, the president could veto line items in an appropriations bill after he signed the bill.

The veto would go into effect unless both the House and the Senate overrode it with two-thirds votes.

Enhanced rescission

Considered the strongest form of veto authority, enhanced rescission ultimately would allow the president to force Congress to mount a two-thirds vote of both chambers to override a rescission. If granted this authority, the president could propose to rescind all or part of any spending in an appropriations bill after he signed the bill.

The rescission would go into effect if Congress failed to overturn it. Congress could overturn it if both chambers, by majority votes, passed a motion of disapproval. The president could veto the motion; Congress could override that veto with two-thirds votes of both chambers.

Expedited rescission

This measure is offered as a less potent alternative to enhanced rescission or the line-item veto. The only significant change in current law would be the requirement that Congress vote on the president's proposal, which it can now ignore. Unlike the other two proposals, expedited rescission would preserve majority rule on spending matters to which the president objects. If granted this authority, the president could propose to rescind all or any part of spending in an appropriations bill after he signed the bill.

The rescission would go into effect only if both chambers approved it by majority votes. The Appropriations Committees could offer their own proposals but not until after the vote on the president's proposal.

Source: Adapted from Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report, April 24, 1993, 1009.

* A rarely used rule allows one-fifth of either chamber to move to discharge the president's proposal from the Appropriations Committee and bring it to the floor if the committee has not acted on it within 25 days of continuous session.