Watchdog group sues to reverse spending-cut bill

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A congressional watchdog group filed
a suit on Tuesday in federal court challenging the
constitutionality of a $39 billion spending-cut law that passed
each chamber of Congress in different forms.

Under the U.S. Constitution, the president signs into law
only bills that are passed in identical form by both chambers.

“We have filed a lawsuit against the Bush administration
for trying to sign into law something that is
unconstitutional,” said Public Citizen President Joan
Claybrook.

In early February, President George W. Bush signed the
controversial budget bill into law, carrying out conservative
Republicans’ campaign to cut domestic programs including
federal health care for the poor and elderly.

The legislation passed the Senate in December only after
Vice President Dick Cheney, in his role as president of the
Senate, cast a rare tie-breaking vote. Passage in the House of
Representatives was extremely close too.

At issue is a change written into the legislation by a
Senate clerk after it passed the Senate and before it reached
the House. The change involved the length of Medicare payments
for the rental of medical equipment such as oxygen tanks,
wheelchairs and hospital beds.

The Senate bill set those payments at 13 months. But by the
time it reached the House, the provision was rewritten to 36
months. The president signed the Senate’s version into law.

Shortly after Bush signed the bill, the Senate passed
legislation that Republican leaders hoped would clear up the
confusion. The legislative fix stated that the version signed
by Bush reflected “the intent of the Congress in enacting the
bill into law.” The House never took up that bill.

Ron Bonjean, a spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert,
an Illinois Republican, said, “We believe that the law is
constitutional and that this is yet another political attempt
by the Democrats to stop us from cutting spending.”

Bonjean was responding to a question on why congressional
leaders allowed the legislation to be sent to the White House
if they knew there was a technical problem.

In its lawsuit, Public Citizen, which opposed many of the
provisions of the spending-cut bill, asked the U.S. District
Court in Washington to overturn the entire law.

If a court were to rule in Public Citizen’s favor, it would
be difficult for the Republican-controlled Congress to pass a
new spending-cut bill so close to November congressional
elections.