Senate panel cuts off funds to Cheney

Senate panel cuts off funds to Cheney
By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer
9 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats moved Tuesday to cut off funding for Vice President Dick Cheney's office in a continuing battle over whether he must comply with national security disclosure rules.

A Senate appropriations panel chaired by Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., refused to fund $4.8 million in the vice president's budget until Cheney's office complies with parts of an executive order governing its handling of classified information.

At issue is a requirement that executive branch offices provide data on how much material they classify and declassify. That information is to be provided to the Information Security Oversight Office at The National Archives.

Cheney's office, with backing from the White House, argues that the offices of the president and vice president are exempt from the order because they are not executive branch "agencies."

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"Neither Mr. Cheney or his staff is above the law or the Constitution," Durbin said. "For the vice president to believe that he has no responsibility to meet this requirement of the law is a dereliction of duty."


Continued @ http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070710/ap_on_go_co/democrats_cheney_2

The Senate measure, which still must go to the chamber floor for a vote, would apply to the fiscal year starting in October and would involve only Cheney's office, which employs about 25 staff members, said Durbin spokesman Joe Shoemaker. It wouldn't affect funding for Cheney's official residence, he said.

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Such a step, said Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., would set a terrible precedent in relations between the executive and legislative branches of government, which have historically let each other set their own budgets.

"This is going to further erode any sort of working relationship back and forth," Brownback said. "This is a patently bad idea."