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Attempt to kill Cheney funding fails in House

By TIMES WIRES
Published June 29, 2007

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney won't lose his home, his office and his entertainment expense account after all. The House on Thursday rejected an attempt to eliminate the vice president's executive office budget, a move that Democrats tied to Cheney's assertion that his office didn't need to comply with national security disclosure rules required of other executive branch agencies. Republicans denounced the proposal as political theater. The vote, on an amendment to a 2008 spending bill for the Treasury Department and executive branch agencies, was defeated 217-209. Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., author of the amendment, said it was the logical outgrowth of the vice president's claim that his office was outside the scope of rules imposed on other executive offices. "Perhaps the vice president thought he occupied an undisclosed fourth branch of government, " Emanuel said. The dispute came when Cheney said his office was exempt from sections of a presidential order that executive branch offices provide data on how much material they classify and declassify. Cheney's office, with backing from the White House, argued that the offices of the president and vice president were exempt from the order because they are not executive branch "agencies."

Also Thursday

Tax collection: An initiative to farm out tax collection to private agencies survived a challenge from House lawmakers who said the program was improper and should be eliminated. Defenders of the program used a procedural move to strip from a Treasury Department spending bill a provision saying the Internal Revenue Service could spend no more than $1-million next year to operate the program, which would have effectively shut it down.

Air traffic controllers: The House transportation committee voted to force the Bush administration to reopen contract talks with air traffic controllers. Shortly after the vote, Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said she would recommend that President Bush veto any bill with such a provision.

Gas-mileage: A House committee rejected an auto industry-backed plan to raise gas-mileage standards for new vehicles. The measure had been put together after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., signaled her support for a Senate plan passed last week to increase standards to 35 miles per gallon by 2020.

[Last modified June 29, 2007, 00:38:33]