Congress Adjourns for the Year

WASHINGTON (AP) Congress adjourned for the year, weary after a bruising partisan session that ranged from the highs of a budget deal and tax cut to a lackluster finish that left major issues, from foreign policy to trade, uncompleted.

"I would give this Congress a B for achievement, a D for behavior and the overall assessment of incomplete," said Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., as lawmakers headed home after Thursday's final session.

House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., claimed success, alluding only generally to an abortive coup attempt against him last summer by some of his top lieutenants.

"We ... made some mistakes and had to learn some things during the year," he said. "But in the end I think virtually every member will tell you, it has been a very successful year for House Republicans."

Even though Congress passed a budget-balancing deal and a $152 billion, five-year tax cut this year, lawmakers left a plateful of issues to tackle when they reconvene in January.

Those include trade negotiating authority for President Clinton, which failed despite heavy lobbying in the waning days of the session; $3.5 billion in new borrowing authority for the International Monetary Fund, needed to help stabilize Asian currency markets; and nearly $1 billion in delinquent U.S. dues payments to the United Nations.

The latter two issues fell by the wayside in a late-session dispute over family planning aid to groups dealing with abortions overseas, which ended with each side blaming the other for the failure of the much-needed foreign policy provisions.

Gingrich, in a letter to Clinton, charged the president gave "domestic political considerations higher priority than national security concerns." Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., shot back that Republicans had been "cynical and counterproductive" in insisting on anti-abortion provisions.

The White House complained that Republicans blocked the U.N. money just as the Clinton administration was trying to round up world support for a looming showdown with Iraq over U.N. weapons inspections.

Other unfinished business included the proposed overhaul of campaign finance laws, which House GOP leaders promised to consider early next year. Much of this year's session was dominated by congressional hearings highlighting abuses of the current system.

Most of the final day was taken up with finishing the last essential business for the year: the final three of 13 spending bills needed to run the government, which came a full six weeks after the new fiscal year started.

Those bills provided $855 million in federal aid to the District of Columbia, $13 billion for foreign aid and $32 billion to run the departments of Commerce, State and Justice.

By late in the day, the fight was drained out of lawmakers. On one of the last spending bills, the most powerful argument was made by Rep. Tony Hall, D-Ohio: "Let's do our job and pass the bill. Let's go home."

But in a final act of protest, Democrats forced a roll call vote on the routine motion to adjourn, in protest of a continuing GOP investigation of the California election in which Democratic Rep. Lorreta Sanchez edged her Republican rival, former Rep. Bob Dornan.

The final spending bill contained a contentious provision, negotiated between Clinton and Republican leaders, to let the Census Bureau prepare to use scientific sampling for the national head count in 2000. A final decision on sampling would be left until early 1999.

Sampling supporters say the technique, which uses statistical methods to estimate certain population segments, would help correct undercounting of minorities. Republicans worry it could be abused to help boost counts of minority voters, who tend to vote Democratic.

But some Democrats particularly blacks and Hispanics said the White House gave too much away in its deal with the GOP. They said it gave Republicans the upper hand to eventually kill sampling, which would hurt Democratic prospects for gains when new congressional districts are drawn after the 2000 census.

In other final-day action:

Lawmakers approved legislation letting thousands of illegal immigrants and hundreds of thousands of Central Americans remain in the country as they apply for permanent residency.

The House and Senate approved $3.4 billion for the ailing Amtrak passenger railroad, while reducing some railroad labor protections.

The House approved a nonbinding measure calling for an international war crimes tribunal to try Saddam Hussein for human rights violations.

The House sent Clinton a bill allowing the Treasury to mint new quarters over the next decade, commemorating each of the 50 states.

(14 Nov 1997 09:07 EST)

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