[JURIST] The US House Budget Committee [official website] on Wednesday approved legislation that would give the president a line-item veto over individual provisions in spending bills. The Legislative Line-Item Veto Act of 2006 [text, PDF; summary, PDF] is weaker than the 1996 line-item veto legislation [text, PDF] that the US Supreme Court struck down [decision text; CNN report] as violating the constitutional separation of powers. The current bill, which President Bush proposed [JURIST report; White House press release] in March, allows Congress to override line-item vetoes by a simple majority vote, rather than by a two-thirds supermajority. The line-item power would expire six years after the bill is enacted. The Budget Committee vote was 24-9, with four Democrats voting in favor.

Read a 2004 Congressional Research Service analysis [PDF] of various line-item veto proposals. AP has more.

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