Bid to cut Cheney’s funds fails
WASHINGTON — Vice President Dick Cheney won’t lose his home, office and entertainment expense account after all.
The House on Thursday rejected an effort to eliminate the vice president’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 executive branch agencies.
Republicans denounced the proposal as political theater.
The vote, on an amendment to a 2008 spending bill for the Treasury Department and executive branch agencies, was defeated 217 to 209.
“We are pleased to see a bipartisan majority reject this political stunt,” said Cheney spokeswoman Megan McGinn.
Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), author of the amendment, said it was the logical outgrowth of Cheney’s claim that his office was outside the scope of rules imposed on other executive offices. “Perhaps the vice president thought he occupied an undisclosed fourth branch of government,” Emanuel said.
The proposal would have withheld about $4.8 million in the budget for the vice president’s official residence, for his office and for other expenses.
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