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HCR 7057 — Line-item Veto
by State Affairs Committee and Rep. Alvarez and others (SCR 7064 by Fiscal Policy Committee)
This summary is provided for information only and does not represent the opinion of any Senator, Senate Officer, or Senate Office.
Prepared by: Fiscal Policy Committee (FP)
Line-item vetoes allow the head of an executive branch of government to reject certain provisions of bills, while allowing other provisions to become law. Congress passed the Line Item Veto Act (LIVA) of 1996 to give the President of the United States the ability to veto certain appropriations by line item. The U.S. Supreme Court found LIVA unconstitutional, noting that a change that gives the President this authority must come through an amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Article V of the U.S. Constitution provides the specific process for amending the document. Congress may directly propose amendments to the Constitution, which is the method that has been used for each of the 27 amendments ratified since the Constitution went into effect.
Alternatively, upon application by the legislatures of two-thirds of the states, Congress must call a convention for the purpose of proposing amendments. A proposed amendment goes into effect once ratified by the legislatures or state conventions of three-fourths of the states; the method of ratification being solely the choice of Congress.
The concurrent resolution constitutes the state’s application to Congress under Article V of the U.S. Constitution to call a convention for the sole purpose of considering and proposing a constitutional amendment giving the President authority to eliminate one or more items of appropriations while approving other portions of a bill.
The concurrent resolution requires copies of the application to be dispatched to the U.S. President, the President of the U.S. Senate, the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, each member of the Florida delegation to the U.S. Congress, and the presiding officer of each house of the legislature of each state.
Vote: Senate Adopted; House Adopted