Bush says seeking line-item veto power

WASHINGTON, Mar 6 (Reuters) President George W Bush announced today he would propose legislation to Congress to give him a line-item veto, or the power to cancel specific items in federal spending bills.

Bush said the proposal would be designed ''to meet Supreme Court standards'' and would ''give me the authority to strip special interest spending and earmarks out of a bill and then send them back to Congress for an up or down vote.'' The Supreme Court rejected as unconstitutional a previous version of the line-item veto in 1998.

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