Dems Threaten to Pull VP Funds

Pols pressure Cheney to comply with rules requiring justification of classified documents

By Peter Fearon, Newser Staff

Posted Jun 26, 2007 5:13 AM CDT

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Dems Threaten to Pull VP Funds — Vice President Dick Cheney, right, and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, listen as President Bush and Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, not shown, meet in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Monday, June 25, 2007. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) (Associated Press)

Angry Democrats are threatening to ax Dick Cheney's budget if the vice president continues to defy regulations on classified documents, the Hill reports. Executive branch agencies are required to provide reports justifying secret documents to an oversight office; Cheney has refused, claiming that his office is neither solely executive nor legislative.

Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel will push to block all $4.4 million of the VP's budget as early as tomorrow, and other Dems are encouraging him. “I’m going to let the money follow his logic,” Emanuel said. “One moment he’s not a part of the executive branch so he can be above the law, but he wants money as part of the executive branch.” Most House Republicans dismissed the maneuver as meaningless.
(More Dick Cheney stories.)

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