The House rejected an effort to eliminate the vice president's
executive office budget, a move that Democrats tied to Vice President
Dick Cheney's assertion that his office did not need to comply with
national security disclosure rules required of other 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.
Representative Rahm Emanuel, Democrat of Illinois and author of the
amendment, said it was the logical outgrowth of Mr. Cheney's claim that
his office was outside the scope of rules imposed on other executive
offices.
