Democrats lose bid to cut Cheney funds

"U.S. House"

06/28/2007

June 28, 2007


WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House on Thursday rejected an attempt to eliminate Vice President Dick Cheney's executive office budget, a move that Democrats tied to Cheney's assertion that his office didn't need to comply with national security disclosure rules required of other executive branch agencies.

Republicans called the proposal political theater.

The vote, on an amendment to a 2008 spending bill for the Treasury Department and executive branch agencies, was defeated 217-209.

Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., author of the amendment, said it would have withheld about $4.8 million in the budget for the vice president's official residence, his office and for other expenses including the hiring of passenger vehicles and entertainment expenses. He would still have received a smaller budget for his role as president of the Senate.

"It's not a serious amendment," scoffed Republican Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri. "This amendment is an amendment in search of a press release."

In yet another attack on Cheney, Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., said Thursday that the House Natural Resources Committee panel will hold a hearing into the role Cheney might have played in the 2002 deaths of about 70,000 salmon near the California-Oregon border.