The National Treasury Employees Union Thursday filed a challenge in court against President Clinton's use of the line-item veto on a provision affecting federal employees' pensions.
NTEU President Robert Tobias, a vehement opponent of the line-item veto authority, said the President's use of the veto on a provision that would affect the union's members gives NTEU the opportunity to put the authority to test in the courts.
Tobias said the line-item veto "upsets the Constitution's carefully crafted scheme of checks and balances."
This is the second time NTEU, which represents 150,000 government workers, has challenged the line-item veto. Last year, before the law went into effect, a federal appeals court threw out the union's challenge because no union members had been injured by the veto power.
Clinton used the line-item veto Thursday to cancel a provision included in the Treasury-General Government appropriations bill that would have allowed federal employees enrolled in the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) to switch to the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS). CSRS enrollees had complained to Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, that they wanted to take full advantage of FERS' high-performing stock investment plan, the Thrift Savings Plan. Stevens inserted the provision during conference, so it received no debate before being passed.
Clinton contended that the provision would be too costly and called it "hastily conceived."
Tobias said the provision would have helped federal retirees whose spouses have their Social Security benefits reduced because their husbands or wives worked for the federal government. Under current law, Social Security benefits are reduced by two-thirds of the amount paid to a spouse under CSRS. For example, if a husband is paid $600 a month under CSRS, and his wife would normally get $600 a month from Social Security, she instead gets only $200 per month.
The vetoed provision would have been "an excellent way to address" that problem, Tobias said.
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