EMERSON PUSHES LINE-ITEM VETO PROPOSAL

U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson isn't putting her faith in the Supreme Court to restore the line-item veto that was struck down by a federal judge last week.

Emerson, R-Cape Girardeau, plans to introduce a proposed constitutional amendment today that would give the president the line-item veto.

"I think it is important to get the ball rolling," Emerson said during a conference call Monday afternoon to Southeast Missouri reporters.

"We need to strike while the iron is hot," she said. "I think it is really important in the whole idea of balancing the federal budget to enable the president to have line-item-veto authority."

Emerson isn't sure if there are enough votes in Congress to pass the constitutional amendment.

If it gets the necessary two-thirds approval of both the House and Senate, it still would have to be ratified by three-fourths of the states. That could take several years, she said.

Congress approved the line-item veto authority for the president in March 1996. President Clinton signed it into law last April.

But Thursday a U.S. district judge ruled the law was unconstitutional. The judge ruled that the law gave the president powers that belonged solely to Congress, turning the principle of separation of powers "on its head."

Emerson said, "The lower court ruling is probably a little bit tough to argue with." In that case, a constitutional amendment offers the only way to satisfy legal concerns, she said.

Clinton said his administration would ask the Supreme Court to restore the line-item-veto law. The veto gave the president the power to cut specific items in spending bills without rejecting the bills entirely.

Most of the nation's governors have line-item-veto authority.

Emerson also discussed another effort to amend the constitution.

The House is expected to vote today on a proposed tax-limitation amendment.

It also is scheduled to consider legislation to protect the privacy of taxpayers' tax records against snooping Internal Revenue Service employees.

The IRS has 136,000 employees and operates on a $13.7 billion budget. Emerson said the agency is too big.

"The IRS is intruding in our lives too much," she said.

The tax-limitation measure is co-sponsored by more than 130 members of the House, including Emerson.

The measure would require a two-thirds majority in both houses to pass any tax increase rather than the current simple majority.

As with other constitutional amendments, it would have to be ratified by the states to become law.

Tax-limitation proponents say four of the last five federal tax increases passed Congress with less than a two-thirds majority. The increases took an added $666 billion from American taxpayers, according to Emerson.

Fourteen states currently have tax-limitation provisions in their constitutions.

In those states, Emerson said, state-government spending has grown more slowly and economies have expanded faster.

Tax-limitation measures alone won't solve the nation's budget woes, she said. "We have to hold the line on spending."

The federal budget was last balanced in 1969.

But Emerson said Congress shouldn't make deeper cuts in military spending to balance the budget. "I think military spending has probably been shredded to the bare bones."

Still, she said, better management of the military budget could produce some cost savings.

Emerson said she wants to eliminate the federal estate tax or "death tax" as it commonly is called.

But she said she would initially settle for raising the tax threshold to $2 million and indexing it to inflation. Currently, the tax kicks in at $600,000.