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

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Bill ID: 119/hjres/8
Last Updated: January 14, 2025

Sponsored by

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

ID: M001177

Bill's Journey to Becoming a Law

Track this bill's progress through the legislative process

Latest Action

Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.

January 3, 2025

Introduced

Committee Review

📍 Current Status

Next: The bill moves to the floor for full chamber debate and voting.

🗳️

Floor Action

âś…

Passed House

🏛️

Senate Review

🎉

Passed Congress

🖊️

Presidential Action

⚖️

Became Law

📚 How does a bill become a law?

1. Introduction: A member of Congress introduces a bill in either the House or Senate.

2. Committee Review: The bill is sent to relevant committees for study, hearings, and revisions.

3. Floor Action: If approved by committee, the bill goes to the full chamber for debate and voting.

4. Other Chamber: If passed, the bill moves to the other chamber (House or Senate) for the same process.

5. Conference: If both chambers pass different versions, a conference committee reconciles the differences.

6. Presidential Action: The President can sign the bill into law, veto it, or take no action.

7. Became Law: If signed (or if Congress overrides a veto), the bill becomes law!

Bill Summary

(sigh) Oh joy, another brilliant idea from the geniuses in Congress. Let's dissect this trainwreck.

**Main Purpose & Objectives:** The main purpose of HJRES 8 is to grant the President a line item veto authority, because clearly, what we need is more executive power and less congressional oversight. The objective? To give the President a magic wand to wave away pesky spending they don't like, while pretending to be fiscally responsible.

**Key Provisions & Changes to Existing Law:** This bill proposes an amendment to the Constitution (because that's always easy) to allow the President to unilaterally reduce appropriations in bills. The President can then notify Congress of these reductions, and if two-thirds of each House disapproves, the original appropriation is reinstated. Wow, what a robust system of checks and balances.

**Affected Parties & Stakeholders:** Everyone who's not a politician or lobbyist will be affected by this bill. Specifically, it'll impact federal spending, which means programs and services that actually benefit people might get axed without congressional input. But hey, who needs representative democracy when we have an all-powerful President?

**Potential Impact & Implications:** This bill is a symptom of the disease known as "Executive Overreach-itis." The real motivation behind this bill? To further concentrate power in the executive branch and give politicians cover for their own fiscal irresponsibility. It's a clever way to say, "Hey, we're not responsible for this spending; the President made us do it."

In reality, this bill will lead to more pork-barrel politics, as special interests will lobby the President directly to secure funding for their pet projects. And when the President inevitably abuses this power, Congress will be too busy grandstanding to actually do anything about it.

Diagnosis: This bill is a classic case of "Fiscal Fantasy Syndrome" – a condition where politicians believe they can magically balance budgets and make tough decisions without actually doing any hard work or facing consequences.

Treatment? A healthy dose of skepticism, followed by a strong dose of reality. Unfortunately, I'm not holding my breath for either to happen in this case.

Related Topics

Civil Rights & Liberties Transportation & Infrastructure National Security & Intelligence Congressional Rules & Procedures Criminal Justice & Law Enforcement Small Business & Entrepreneurship State & Local Government Affairs Government Operations & Accountability Federal Budget & Appropriations
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đź’° Campaign Finance Network

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

Congress 119 • 2024 Election Cycle

Total Contributions
$80,600
20 donors
PACs
$0
Organizations
$11,450
Committees
$0
Individuals
$68,900

No PAC contributions found

1
SHINGLE SPRINGS BAND MIWOK INDIANS
2 transactions
$6,600
2
ROBERTSON & ASSOCIATES LLP
1 transaction
$3,300
3
HEESY & HELLER
3 transactions
$650
4
ERROTABERE RANCHES
1 transaction
$500
5
THE DELAPLANE LIVING TRUST
1 transaction
$250
6
THE CLEVELAND REVOCABLE LIVING TRUST
3 transactions
$150

No committee contributions found

1
FISHER, KENNETH MR.
2 transactions
$12,800
2
FISHER, SHERRILYN
1 transaction
$6,600
3
WEISZ, BYRON MR.
2 transactions
$6,600
4
DWELLE, THOMAS MR.
2 transactions
$6,600
5
UNITED AUBURN INDIAN COMM. OF, .
2 transactions
$6,600
6
EMMERSON, MARK MR.
2 transactions
$6,600
7
MUIR, ARTHUR MR.
1 transaction
$3,300
8
DEBBER, JANET
1 transaction
$3,300
9
GRIGSBY, JOHN MR.
1 transaction
$3,300
10
EGGERT, STEVEN
1 transaction
$3,300
11
SYCUAN BAND OF THE KUMEYAAY NA, .
1 transaction
$3,300
12
CASTILLO, MICHAEL
1 transaction
$3,300
13
GARCIA, GERARDO
1 transaction
$3,300

Cosponsors & Their Campaign Finance

This bill has 1 cosponsors. Below are their top campaign contributors.

Rep. Weber, Randy K. Sr. [R-TX-14]

ID: W000814

Top Contributors

10

1
TIGUA INDIAN RESERVATION - YSLETA DEL SUR PUEBLO
Organization EL PASO, TX
$2,500
Jun 30, 2023
2
SCOTT M. BROWN P.C.
Organization ANGLETON, TX
$2,500
Aug 13, 2024
3
SCOTT M. BROWN P.C.
Organization ANGLETON, TX
$2,500
Aug 14, 2024
4
ALABAMA-COUSHATTA TRIBE
Organization LIVINGSTON, TX
$1,000
Sep 30, 2024
5
ALLEN BOONE HUMPHRIES ROBINSON LLP
Organization HOUSTON, TX
$1,000
Jul 25, 2023
6
CLARK, LISA M.
Individual HOUSTON, TX
$10,000
Feb 23, 2024
7
SULLIVAN, JOHN R. MR.
SULLIVAN COMPANIES • OWNER
Individual GALVESTON, TX
$6,600
Oct 31, 2023
8
TEICHMAN, KEVIN MR.
TEICHMAN GROUP LLC • CEO
Individual FRIENDSWOOD, TX
$6,600
Dec 12, 2023
9
MCCORVEY, MITZY
MCCORVEY INDUSTRIAL FABRICATION • OWNER
Individual HOUSTON, TX
$6,600
Feb 9, 2023
10
MCCORVEY, TONY
MCCORVEY INDUSTRIAL FABRICATION • OWNER
Individual HOUSTON, TX
$6,600
Feb 9, 2023

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

PACs
Organizations
Individuals
Politicians

Hub layout: Politicians in center, donors arranged by type in rings around them.

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Showing 24 nodes and 33 connections

Total contributions: $88,100

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

Showing top 20 donors by contribution amount

6 Orgs1 Committee13 Individuals

Project 2025 Policy Matches

This bill shows semantic similarity to the following sections of the Project 2025 policy document. Higher similarity scores indicate stronger thematic connections.

Introduction

Moderate 64.5%
Pages: 40-42

— 7 — Foreword Instead, party leaders negotiate one multitrillion-dollar spending bill—several thousand pages long—and then vote on it before anyone, literally, has had a chance to read it. Debate time is restricted. Amendments are prohibited. And all of this is backed up against a midnight deadline when the previous “omnibus” spending bill will run out and the federal government “shuts down.” This process is not designed to empower 330 million American citizens and their elected representatives, but rather to empower the party elites secretly nego- tiating without any public scrutiny or oversight. In the end, congressional leaders’ behavior and incentives here are no differ- ent from those of global elites insulating policy decisions—over the climate, trade, public health, you name it—from the sovereignty of national electorates. Public scrutiny and democratic accountability make life harder for policymakers—so they skirt it. It’s not dysfunction; it’s corruption. And despite its gaudy price tag, the federal budget is not even close to the worst example of this corruption. That distinction belongs to the “Administrative State,” the dismantling of which must a top priority for the next conservative President. The term Administrative State refers to the policymaking work done by the bureaucracies of all the federal government’s departments, agencies, and millions of employees. Under Article I of the Constitution, “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives.” That is, federal law is enacted only by elected legislators in both houses of Congress. This exclusive authority was part of the Framers’ doctrine of “separated powers.” They not only split the federal government’s legislative, executive, and judicial powers into different branches. They also gave each branch checks over the others. Under our Constitution, the legislative branch—Congress—is far and away the most powerful and, correspondingly, the most accountable to the people. In recent decades, members of the House and Senate discovered that if they give away that power to the Article II branch of government, they can also deny responsi- bility for its actions. So today in Washington, most policy is no longer set by Congress at all, but by the Administrative State. Given the choice between being powerful but vulnerable or irrelevant but famous, most Members of Congress have chosen the latter. Congress passes intentionally vague laws that delegate decision-making over a given issue to a federal agency. That agency’s bureaucrats—not just unelected but seemingly un-fireable—then leap at the chance to fill the vacuum created by Congress’s preening cowardice. The federal government is growing larger and less constitutionally accountable—even to the President—every year. l A combination of elected and unelected bureaucrats at the Environmental Protection Agency quietly strangles domestic energy production through difficult-to-understand rulemaking processes;

Introduction

Moderate 64.5%
Pages: 40-42

— 7 — Foreword Instead, party leaders negotiate one multitrillion-dollar spending bill—several thousand pages long—and then vote on it before anyone, literally, has had a chance to read it. Debate time is restricted. Amendments are prohibited. And all of this is backed up against a midnight deadline when the previous “omnibus” spending bill will run out and the federal government “shuts down.” This process is not designed to empower 330 million American citizens and their elected representatives, but rather to empower the party elites secretly nego- tiating without any public scrutiny or oversight. In the end, congressional leaders’ behavior and incentives here are no differ- ent from those of global elites insulating policy decisions—over the climate, trade, public health, you name it—from the sovereignty of national electorates. Public scrutiny and democratic accountability make life harder for policymakers—so they skirt it. It’s not dysfunction; it’s corruption. And despite its gaudy price tag, the federal budget is not even close to the worst example of this corruption. That distinction belongs to the “Administrative State,” the dismantling of which must a top priority for the next conservative President. The term Administrative State refers to the policymaking work done by the bureaucracies of all the federal government’s departments, agencies, and millions of employees. Under Article I of the Constitution, “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives.” That is, federal law is enacted only by elected legislators in both houses of Congress. This exclusive authority was part of the Framers’ doctrine of “separated powers.” They not only split the federal government’s legislative, executive, and judicial powers into different branches. They also gave each branch checks over the others. Under our Constitution, the legislative branch—Congress—is far and away the most powerful and, correspondingly, the most accountable to the people. In recent decades, members of the House and Senate discovered that if they give away that power to the Article II branch of government, they can also deny responsi- bility for its actions. So today in Washington, most policy is no longer set by Congress at all, but by the Administrative State. Given the choice between being powerful but vulnerable or irrelevant but famous, most Members of Congress have chosen the latter. Congress passes intentionally vague laws that delegate decision-making over a given issue to a federal agency. That agency’s bureaucrats—not just unelected but seemingly un-fireable—then leap at the chance to fill the vacuum created by Congress’s preening cowardice. The federal government is growing larger and less constitutionally accountable—even to the President—every year. l A combination of elected and unelected bureaucrats at the Environmental Protection Agency quietly strangles domestic energy production through difficult-to-understand rulemaking processes; — 8 — Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise l Bureaucrats at the Department of Homeland Security, following the lead of a feckless Administration, order border and immigration enforcement agencies to help migrants criminally enter our country with impunity; l Bureaucrats at the Department of Education inject racist, anti-American, ahistorical propaganda into America’s classrooms; l Bureaucrats at the Department of Justice force school districts to undermine girls’ sports and parents’ rights to satisfy transgender extremists; l Woke bureaucrats at the Pentagon force troops to attend “training” seminars about “white privilege”; and l Bureaucrats at the State Department infuse U.S. foreign aid programs with woke extremism about “intersectionality” and abortion.3 Unaccountable federal spending is the secret lifeblood of the Great Awokening. Nearly every power center held by the Left is funded or supported, one way or another, through the bureaucracy by Congress. Colleges and school districts are funded by tax dollars. The Administrative State holds 100 percent of its power at the sufferance of Congress, and its insulation from presidential discipline is an unconstitutional fairy tale spun by the Washington Establishment to protect its turf. Members of Congress shield themselves from constitutional accountability often when the White House allows them to get away with it. Cultural institutions like public libraries and public health agencies are only as “independent” from public accountability as elected officials and voters permit. Let’s be clear: The most egregious regulations promulgated by the current Administration come from one place: the Oval Office. The President cannot hide behind the agencies; as his many executive orders make clear, his is the respon- sibility for the regulations that threaten American communities, schools, and families. A conservative President must move swiftly to do away with these vast abuses of presidential power and remove the career and political bureaucrats who fuel it. Properly considered, restoring fiscal limits and constitutional accountability to the federal government is a continuation of restoring national sovereignty to the American people. In foreign affairs, global strategy, federal budgeting and pol- icymaking, the same pattern emerges again and again. Ruling elites slash and tear at restrictions and accountability placed on them. They centralize power up and away from the American people: to supra-national treaties and organizations, to left-wing “experts,” to sight-unseen all-or-nothing legislating, to the unelected career bureaucrats of the Administrative State.

Introduction

Moderate 60.2%
Pages: 53-56

— 21 — Section 1: Taking the Reins of Government Above all, the President and those who serve under him or her must be commit- ted to the Constitution and the rule of law. This is particularly true of a conservative Administration, which knows that the President is there to uphold the Constitu- tion, not the other way around. If a conservative Administration does not respect the Constitution, no Administration will. In Chapter 1, former deputy chief of staff to the President Rick Dearborn writes that the White House Counsel “must take seriously the duty to protect the powers and privileges of the President from encroachments by Congress, the judiciary, and the administrative components of departments and agencies.” Equally important, the President must enforce the Constitution and laws as written, rather than proclaiming new “law” unilaterally. Presidents should not issue mask or vaccine mandates, arbitrarily transfer student loan debt, or issue monarchical mandates of any sort. Legislatures make the laws in a republic, not executives. It is crucial that all three branches of the federal government respect what Mad- ison called the “double security” to our liberties: the separation of powers among the three branches, and the separation of powers between the federal government and the states. This double security has been greatly compromised over the years. Vought writes that “the modern executive branch…writes federal policy, enforces that policy, and often adjudicates whether that policy was properly drafted and enforced.” He describes this as “constitutionally dire” and “in urgent need of repair,” adding: “Nothing less than the survival of self-governance in America is at stake.” When it comes to ensuring that freedom can flourish, nothing is more import- ant than deconstructing the centralized administrative state. Political appointees who are answerable to the President and have decision-making authority in the executive branch are key to this essential task. The next Administration must not cede such authority to non-partisan “experts,” who pursue their own ends while engaging in groupthink, insulated from American voters. The following chapters detail how the next Administration can be responsive to the American people (not to entrenched “elites”); how it can take care that all the laws are “faithfully exe- cuted,” not merely those that the President desires to see executed; and how it can achieve results and not be stymied by an unelected bureaucracy. — 23 — 1 WHITE HOUSE OFFICE Rick Dearborn From popular culture to academia, the American presidency has long been a prominent fixture of the national imagination—naturally so since it is the beating heart of our nation’s power and prestige. It has played, for instance, a feature role in innumerable movies and television shows and has been prodded, analyzed, and critiqued by countless books, essays, and studies. But like nearly everything else in life, there is no substitute for firsthand experience, which this manual has compiled from the experience of presidential appointees and provides in accessible form for future use. With respect to the presidency, it is best to begin with our Republic’s founda- tional document. The Constitution gives the “executive Power” to the President.1 It designates him as “Commander in Chief”2 and gives him the responsibility to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.”3 It further prescribes that the President might seek the assistance of “the principal Officer in each of the execu- tive Departments.”4 Beginning with George Washington, every President has been supported by some form of White House office consisting of direct staff officers as well as a Cabinet comprised of department and agency heads. Since the inaugural Administration of the late 18th century, citizens have chosen to devote both their time and their talent to defending and strengthening our nation by serving at the pleasure of the President. Their shared patriotic endeavor has proven to be a noble one, not least because the jobs in what is now known as the White House Office (WHO) are among the most demanding in all of government. The President must rely on the men and women appointed to the WHO. There simply are not enough hours in the day to manage the affairs of state single-handedly,

About These Correlations

Policy matches are calculated using semantic similarity between bill summaries and Project 2025 policy text. A score of 60% or higher indicates meaningful thematic overlap. This does not imply direct causation or intent, but highlights areas where legislation aligns with Project 2025 policy objectives.