Final federal budget deal could come this week

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As the fiscal year enters its seventh week without a federal budget, the White House and the Republican- led Congress are both indicating a deal could come as soon as this week on the five spending bills still on the table.

The impending deal has forced White House Chief of Staff John Podesta to remain in Washington, instead of traveling with President Clinton to a summit of European leaders in Turkey, according to an administration official.

White House budget negotiators met Sunday at the executive mansion, according to a spokeswoman for the Office of Management and Budget.

The Democratic leader of the Senate, Tom Daschle (R-South Dakota), is expressing optimism about a budget deal. "I hope that Wednesday or Thursday we're finally going to bring it to completion. We still have outstanding issues," he said Sunday.

The House was scheduled to return from Veteran's Day recess Monday afternoon, and the Senate later in the week. Budget negotiators have until Wednesday before the current bill that funds the government expires.

Sticking points remain

Sticking points in the talks include a demand by some conservative Republicans to link paying the United Nations more than $1 billion dollars in U.S. back dues with restrictions on overseas abortions and family planning programs.

The White House is considering a compromise and has been consulting with abortion rights groups to prepare them for a deal. Some Democrats are calling on the GOP leadership to break the impasse.

"Stand up, delink paying the UN dues from family planning. Don't let this issue be hijacked by an extremist group in the Republican party," said Rep. Nita Lowey (D-New York) on CNN's "Late Edition."

Rep. Rick Lazio (R-New York) responded. "There ought to be a compromise on this; I think there will be a compromise on it. Unfortunately, there are people that want to be inflexible on this issue."

Mining waste: a potential pitfall

Another issue threatening any deal is a set of provisions in the Interior Spending Bill concerning the dumping of toxic mining waste on public lands.

President Clinton opposes the practice, calling it "anti- environment."

Daschle predicted a compromise on the mining-waste issue will come out of the talks.

A similarly unresolved budget question is how to pay for an extra $6 billion in spending to keep the budget balanced. The GOP proposes a 1-percent across-the-board spending cut to make up the difference. The alternative would be cutting the $6 billion from existing federal programs.

"If we can find the offsets we'll go down to zero across-the- board," said Sen. Pete Domenici (R-New Mexico), powerful chairman of the Senate Budget Committee.

Both sides claiming victory

A sure sign that this year's long budget negotiation process may be coming to a close is the sudden talk from members of Congress about winners and losers. Both sides are claiming victory.

"When you do the final assumptions, we will not have used Social Security trust fund money this year either. That'll be two years in a row," Domenici pointed out.

Democrats say they're getting 95 percent of what they wanted from the budget talks, and are already moving on. They're blaming Congress' failure to pass gun-control and heath-care legislation this year on the GOP.

Correspondent Kelly Wallace contributed to this story.

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