While House Republican leaders have sought to reign in executive branch power as a way of bringing fiscal responsibility to Washington, a Senate subcommittee tomorrow will examine a bipartisan measure seeking to accomplish that goal by granting the president additional authority.

A Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subpanel will consider the "Reduce Unnecessary Spending Act of 2011," which seeks to give the president a line-item veto.

It is a bill that Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), who chairs the subcommittee overseeing federal financial management that will hold the hearing, reintroduced this year with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). Both men were co-sponsors of the bill during the 111th Congress and are longtime supporters of the line-item veto.

Ever since the Supreme Court struck down a law granting the president line-item veto power in 1998, proponents of the "budget scalpel" mechanism have been seeking a constitutional way to allow the chief executive to cut earmarks and other wasteful provisions that get attached to spending bills.

President Obama called on Congress to pass legislation that would grant him a line-item veto last year.

Carper and McCain's proposal would allow the president to single out earmarks and other nonentitlement spending and send them back to Congress for expedited votes on whether to rescind funding. Both the House and Senate would have to approve a rescission request. The bill would sunset at the end of 2015 to give Congress the chance to review its effectiveness before renewing it.

In trying to build momentum for the effort this year, Carper starts with strong support in his subcommittee. Ranking member Scott Brown (R-Mass.) is one of 33 Senate co-sponsors of the bill.

"This expedited rescissions proposal would empower the president to exercise greater fiscal restraint and bring much-needed accountability to the appropriations process," Carper said last week in a statement. "While this bill alone certainly wouldn't be enough to solve all of our nation's fiscal problems, it would be a valuable addition to our toolbox as we work to reduce our budget deficits."

Schedule: The hearing is tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. in 324 Dirksen.

Witness: Maya MacGuineas, president, the Committee for a Responsible Budget; Virginia McMurtry, specialist in American national government, Congressional Research Service; Todd Tatelman, legislative attorney, American law division, Congressional Research Service; and Thomas Schatz, president, Citizens Against Government Waste.