President Bush's last State of the Union speech to Congress Monday night, will be "split about 50/50" on domestic policy and foreign policy, with Bush calling on Congress to pass the $150 billion stimulus package and talking about improved security in Iraq.
In one new announcement, Bush will try to reduce the use of earmarks, a common Capitol Hill practice of slipping pet projects into spending bills. He will pledge to veto any spending bill that does not cut earmarks in half from levels spelled out in the current budget. Bush also plans to sign an executive order on Tuesday directing agencies to ignore any future earmarks that are not actually written into law, but rather tucked into obscure "report" language. |