Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said that Congress needs to “pass a rule” to give President Trump line-item veto power, even though such a move would require a constitutional amendment.
Mnuchin was responding to a question on “Fox News Sunday” regarding criticism from conservatives of a massive $1.3 trillion spending bill that Trump signed on Friday. Trump had threatened to veto the bill, which funds the government until the end of September, earlier on Friday and said at a bill signing that he wouldn’t pass another bill like it again.
Mnuchin said the reason the bill raises the deficit so high is due to capitulation from congressional Republicans to Democratic demands to raise domestic spending in addition to military spending hikes.
Host Chris Wallace responded Democrats will ask for the same thing when the next spending bill rolls around in September.
Mnuchin responded Congress should give President Trump line-item veto power, which would let Trump veto certain parts of a bill.
However, Congress cannot do that since the Supreme Court ruled the line-item veto was unconstitutional in 1998.
Wallace told Mnuchin that a line-item veto would require an amendment to the constitution.
“Chris we don’t need to get into a debate. There are different ways of doing this,” Mnuchin said, refusing to further elaborate.
