 An action by which the President might pick and choose which parts of the bill to approve or not approve amounted to the President acting as a legislator instead of an executive and head of state—and particularly as a single legislator acting in place of the entire Congress—thereby violating the separation of powers doctrine.Prior to this ruling, President Clinton had applied the line-item veto to the federal budget 82 times.In 2006, Senator Bill Frist introduced the Legislative Line Item Veto Act of 2006 in the United States Senate.