Congress averts shutdown while budget battle rages

September 28, 1999
Web posted at: 8:28 p.m. EDT (0028 GMT)

WASHINGTON -- Congress voted Tuesday to keep the government running for three weeks into the new fiscal year while lawmakers battle over how to allocate funds for spending on military, social and other domestic programs.

By a vote of 98-1, the Senate followed the House in passing the stop-gap measure to fund the government at current spending levels until Oct. 21 -- averting the possibility of a government shutdown through that time.

But while the White House said President Clinton would sign the measure, budget cheif Jacob Lew has warned that Republicans should be under "no illusion" that he would sign numerous short-term measures.

Democrats also complained before the 421-2 House vote that unyielding Republican demands are responsible for Congress' failure to complete most of the 13 spending bills by the start of the new fiscal year on October 1, which is nearly an annual event.

But Rep. Bill Young, (R-Florida), the House Appropriations Committee chairman, said he invited Clinton months ago to join Republicans in working through their spending differences.

"It was his decision not to do so," Young said.

And while House and Senate Republican negotiators have reached agreement on some appropriations measures, differences remain between the negotiators on other bills, which ensured that Congress would be unable to keep its promise to finish work on the spending bills by the start of the government's new fiscal year.

In this story:

D.C. funding bill vetoed
Foreign aid bill passed
Social spending cuts eased

GOP leaders are hoping to complete many of the 13 annual spending bills by Friday. Eight spending bills are unfinished and several have been held up by disputes among the majority Republicans.

The $68 billion agriculture bill has been slowed by battles over the Cuba trade embargo and regional milk prices. Disputes over the Air Force's planned purchases of F-22 stealth fighters has delayed the nearly $270 billion defense bill.

An internal GOP fight over whether surplus federal gas taxes should be used for road projects or distributed to the states is holding up the $50 billion transportation measure. Congress and the administration also are in disagreement over hiring police officers, legal aid for the poor and other issues in a $38 billion measure financing the departments of Commerce, Justice and State.

D.C. funding bill vetoed

Progress has been made on other bills as the Senate passed Tuesday on a 96-3 vote a compromise $21 billion energy and water bill. The bill would be the fifth appropriation measure sent to Clinton.

The president is likely to sign it after Republicans dropped language that would have helped developers and local governments file quicker legal appeals when the government blocks them from building on wetlands. On Monday, the House approved the legislation on a 327-87 vote.

However, the president vetoed Tuesday the funding bill for the District of Columbia because of provisions that limit and block local decision making and spending.

"I have decided to veto this bill because Congress has added a number of unacceptable riders that prevent local residents from making their own decisions about local matters," Clinton said in a statement.

The president said that the congressional interference would not have been condoned for any other local jurisdiction in the country, specifically objecting to provisions prohibiting the use of federal and local funds to promote voting representation in Congress for the district, a cap on plaintiff attorneys fees in disability cases brought by parents against the public school system, and a strict ban on spending any money, including local funds, for abortions or health insurance for domestic partners.

The president also objected to the prohibition on spending for needle exchange programs and limits on the district's ability to regulate illegal drugs.

The Senate Appropriations Committee also plans to vote Tuesday on a $324 billion social spending bill for fiscal 2000. A subcommittee approved the measure on Monday, which outspends Clinton's education proposals by $500 million, but it also provides less than Clinton wanted for hiring teachers, after-school centers and other of the president's favorite initiatives.

"There's a very tough line between what I think the president will sign and what I can sell" to congressional Republicans, the subcommittee chairman, Sen. Arlen Specter, (R-Pennsylvania) said. "It is a devilishly difficult judgment play, but I think we're on the right track."

Foreign aid bill passed

House-Senate bargainers reached agreement on a compromise $12.6 billion foreign aid measure for the new fiscal year. They reached agreement after deleting language that would have barred aid to groups that promote liberalized abortion laws overseas, which was a concession to the Clinton Administration and moderate Republicans, and a blow to anti-abortion conservatives.

But the House-Senate compromise is $2 billion less than what the president wanted for foreign aid. A similar dispute over international family planning is holding up separate legislation that would authorize about $1 billion in delinquent U.S. dues to the United Nations, some of which dates back to the 1980s.

Current law bans the use of federal funds for organizations that perform abortions overseas. The deleted provision would have barred federal aid to groups that use their own money to lobby overseas for the procedure. The House-Senate measure provides $385 million for international family planning assistance. The bill omits the $500 million Clinton requested for Israel and the Palestinians to carry out the peace accord negotiated last year at Wye River, Maryland.

The bill also includes funds for the U.S. Army School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia., which trains foreign soldiers who have been accused of committing atrocities in Central America. It forbids spending on major construction projects in Kosovo, and requires the State Department to certify that U.S. aid to Kosovo will be limited to 15 percent of total international assistance to the rebellious Yugoslav province.

Social spending cuts eased

Senate Republicans have eased some of the House cuts in the president's proposals for social spending. The president already has threatened a veto if the House's bill passed, citing its cuts in his plans for job training for teen-agers, hiring teachers, and other programs.

"Maybe our bill is not perfect, but it's a heck of a lot better than what the House did," said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa).

The measure, which finances the departments of Labor, Education and Health and Human Services for fiscal 2000, is the last and most controversial of the 13 spending bills to begin making its way through Congress.

Most of the measure would pay for automatically approved benefits such as Medicaid. The portion that lawmakers fully control totals $91.7 billion -- $4 billion more than fiscal year 1999 but $1.4 billion below Clinton's request.

To help Republicans claim the measure would not eat into Social Security surpluses, they would delay $16.5 billion of the bill's spending until fiscal 2001.

Other differences between the congressional Republicans and the president on the social spending bill:

• The Senate bill calls for $200 million less than the $1.4 billion Clinton wanted for hiring thousands of new teachers.

• The Senate bill would provide $35.2 billion for education, $500 million more than Clinton; $11.4 billion for labor programs, $200 million less than Clinton wanted; and $37.5 billion for health and human services programs, $1.6 billion below Clinton's request.

• The bill would provide $17.6 billion for the National Institutes of Health, $1.7 billion more than Clinton; $6 billion for education for handicapped students, or $600 million more than Clinton; and $7.8 billion for Pell grants for low-income undergraduates, $300 million more than Clinton.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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