Congress bracing for spending during campaign season

WASHINGTON -- A campaign season of House-Senate spending clashes over counterterrorism, schools and other items approaches, but it is unclear if the one event sure to grab headlines will occur: a veto by President Bush.

Bush seems to be itching for his first veto. The confrontation would help polish his credentials as a fiscal conservative after presiding over the return of budget deficits and signing an expensive farm bill.

But he can't kill legislation until lawmakers send it to him. That would require the Republican-led House to approve a bill he opposes. A vote like that could sour some of the GOP's core conservative voters just before an election that could cost the party its control of the House.

"The only way the president can veto something is if we pass something that's labeled veto bait," Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said in an interview. "We don't intend to bring something that's fiscally irresponsible to the House floor."

With Democrats controlling the Senate, both parties will have plenty of chances to underscore their budget differences in the run-up to the November election.

Anti-terror bill clashes

The anti-terror package Bush requested in March and many of the 13 bills covering agencies' spending for the coming fiscal year are possible battlefields.

As work proceeds on those measures, Bush will be under pressure to spend more than he wants. There are new, growing needs such as the costs of battling Western brushfires, and lawmakers of both parties will demand election-season largesse they can take home to their districts.

Even so, many conservatives say a veto is the best way to control spending and signal to Republican voters their party stands for fiscal prudence. Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said last week he will ask House leaders to stage votes on spending measures.

The White House wants to hold the bill to the roughly $29 billion approved by the House, not the Senate's $31.5 billion.

But even if Hastert scheduled such a vote in hopes of letting the president cast a veto, Democratic strategists could try to make Republicans provide at least half the votes for such a bill.