This proposal would change the U.S. Constitution to give the President a new power called the 'line item veto.' Right now, when Congress passes a spending bill, the President has to either sign the whole thing or reject it completely. This amendment would let the President pick out specific spending items they disagree with and reject just those parts, while approving the rest of the bill.

Here's how it would work: If a President uses this power to cut spending on something, they have to tell Congress within 10 days. Then Congress gets a chance to fight back. If both the House and Senate vote by a two-thirds majority to disapprove of the cut, that spending gets restored to its original amount. Essentially, Congress would have the final say—they could override the President's cuts if they really wanted to.

The idea behind this is to give Presidents a tool to reduce wasteful or unnecessary spending without having to veto an entire bill that might contain important programs. Critics worry it could give too much power to the President to reshape spending bills that Congress carefully negotiated. Either way, this would require amending the Constitution, which is a very difficult process requiring approval from two-thirds of Congress and three-fourths of the states.

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to provide certain line item veto authority to the President.

Rep. McClintock, Tom [R-CA-5]

This joint resolution proposes a constitutional amendment that authorizes the President to use a line item veto to reduce an appropriation in a bill or joint resolution. Under the amendment, the President must notify Congress within 10 days of using this authority to reduce an appropriation. The House and Senate may then consider disapproval of the reduction. If at least two-thirds of each chamber of Congress votes to disapprove the reduction, the amount of the appropriation that is subject to the reduction must be returned to the amount that was originally presented to the President.