News in Brief: A Washington Roundup

The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether the president should have the power to pick and choose among the programs Congress votes to fund.

Without so-called line-item-veto authority, the president must accept or reject an entire spending bill and cannot selectively overrule Congress' funding choices.

But if the Supreme Court endorses the law in question, President Clinton or one of his successors could, for example, approve Congress' decision to fund the Title I compensatory education program, but reject the lawmakers' decision to give money to...