(Photo: Scott Olson, Getty Images) 
 
 WASHINGTON — Last year, then-president Barack Obama vetoed a bill that would have curbed the pensions of former presidents if they took outside income of $400,000 or more. So now that former president Barack Obama has decided to accept $400,000 for an upcoming Wall Street speech, the sponsors of that bill say they'll reintroduce that bill in hopes that President Trump will sign it. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images 
 
 Last October, House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz was so excited about continuing to investigate Hillary Clinton in her new role as president that he couldn’t help but gush to the Washington Post. “His veto was very self-serving.” 
 
 The oversight chair then tweeted out the headline and a link to the story, with the note, “Yes, it will.” 
 
 Obama's $400,000 speech could prompt Congress to go after his pension https://t.co/h17muKPMmE via @USATODAY Yes, it will — Jason Chaffetz (@jasoninthehouse) May 4, 2017 
 
 To be fair, Chaffetz has been interested in limiting benefits for former presidents for some time, and the issue has bipartisan support. He wants to reduce the pension to $200,000, and phase out expense allowances for former presidents who have outside income. Thanks to the paid-speaking circuit, today no former president is at risk of going broke, and last year Congress sent President Obama legislation, sponsored by Chaffetz, that would reduce payments to former presidents once their outside income exceeds $400,000. The bill passed both the House and Senate with no opposition, and no veto threat had come from the White House. Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., the top Democrat on Chaffetz's committee, was a co-sponsor of the original bill. President Trump hasn’t taken an official position on the issue, but during the campaign he promised to “work on” reforming benefits for former presidents. The basic formula for paying former presidents has been unchanged since Congress passed the Former Presidents Act in 1958. Congress, moved by President Truman's complaints of financial difficulties, gave former presidents a pension equal to the salary of a cabinet secretary — currently $203,000 a year — for the rest of their lives. If Chaffetz can’t get his reform bill signed before he leaves office, there may be another solution: President Trump spends one less weekend at Mar-a-Lago, and we look the other way on Jimmy Carter’s lavish $430,000 benefit package. With Obama joining the club as of Jan. 20, the 2017 spending bill approved by the House Wednesday contained nearly $3.9 million for all the former presidents through Sept. 30 — a $588,000 annual increase. "President Obama will deliver speeches from time to time," said Eric Schultz, a former White House spokesman who continues to advise Obama.  President George W. Bush poses with President-elect Barack Obama and former presidents George H.W. Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2pyJUSb
– Jason Chaffetz had a concise response to a Wednesday USA Today headline, which read "Obama's $400,000 speech could prompt Congress to go after his pension": "Yes, it will." That speech, one Obama will make at a Cantor Fitzgerald conference, is earning him some heat, prompting Chaffetz, chair of the House Oversight Committee, to pull up a bill Obama vetoed last summer that would've slashed ex-presidents' pensions once outside income hit $400,000. Chaffetz says Obama's veto of the Presidential Allowance Modernization Act, which he and Senate sponsor Joni Ernst say they'll re-up later in May, was "self-serving," and the former president's "hypocrisy ... is revealing," per USA Today. At the time, Intelligencer notes, Obama said he was opposed to suddenly leaving staffers of ex-presidents in the lurch, though he would've been open to "technical fixes" in the bill. Former presidents now take home a $207,800 pension, plus $150,000 for staff and office space; other benefits also boost costs. Chaffetz's bill strove to cap the total at $400,000: a $200,000 pension, $200,000 for expenses, and a dollar-by-dollar reduction of that total once an ex-president earns beyond $400,000. If they "want to go fishing in Utah for the rest of their lives," they'll be "well compensated," Chaffetz said in 2015, per USA Today, but if they're going to rack up big bucks, "taxpayers shouldn't have to subsidize them." No comment from a current Obama rep, though ex-White House spokesman Eric Schultz says any speech Obama gives will stay "true to his values, his vision, and his record"; President Trump has been mum. Pols on both sides of the aisle, however, seem open to such a measure, including Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings, who co-sponsored the original bill. (Chaffetz is winding his governmental tenure down.)