Can The President Veto Online Gambling Add-on?

[johnny1212]

An interesting thought in a desperate situation

Distraught US online gamblers hoping for a reversal of the proposed US law disrupting online gambling financial channels were discussing protests directed at political representatives and an unusual and uncertain avenue called the President's Line Item Veto today.

The Congressional approved Safe Ports Bill to which the anti-online gambling measure was attached late Friday now awaits the President's signature to become the law of the land, but a current proposal whereby the President could have authority to veto a non-germane attachment such as the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 excited player interest.

The proposal that the President be given this power in addition to the overall authority of a veto has been a cause for some political and Supreme Court argument in the past. In March of this year the White House asked that Congress give the President a line-item veto power and sent a bill to Capitol Hill claiming that it satisfies the constitutional concerns that sunk the last version a decade ago.

Since then it has been re-introduced, and has already passed the House (H.R. 4890 Legislative Line Item Veto Act of 2006 and a Senate bill S. 2381 is apparently in process. As recently as September 5 2006 this proposal was read for the second time and placed on the Senate Legislative Calendar at number 589 under General Orders.

The current version is said to differ from the abortive 1998 proposal in that it focuses more on important appropriations and spending bills, and the attachment of irrelevant (or non-germane) amendments and provisions to these, giving the President the right of veto on the attachments as well as a primary bill in its entirety.

Working on the assumption that they had nothing to lose in the current legislative climate, a number of players were composing last minute appeals to the President, pointing to the Line Item Veto Act and the unusual manner in which the anti-online gaming measure had been attached to the Safe Ports Bill instead of undergoing the more democratic process of debate on the Senate floor.