
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 30, 1990                   TAG: 9003300893
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/1   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

DEMOCRATS IGNORE BUSH THREAT TO VETO CHILD-CARE BILL

House Democrats are tempting a presidential veto by rejecting the White House version of a child-care bill in favor of their own more costly and ambitious plan.

The House approved the measure, estimated to cost at least $27 billion over its first five years, just hours after a spokesman for President Bush issued a fresh veto threat Thursday.

"Rather than waving his veto pen, our president should match his warm words with good deeds and agree to sign our child-care bill," House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., said after the vote.

The bill still must go to a House-Senate conference to resolve differences with the Senate. But Democrats hoped the ultimate version would mirror the House bill and that election-year pressures would make Bush back down from his threat.

The House plan would expand tax credits for poor families to offset the cost of child care and would provide federal money for local governments to set up new day-care programs in public schools.

It would create a system of state-issued subsidy vouchers for parents who want to use religious day-care centers, expand the Head Start program for poor children, and establish minimum standards for day-care centers.

Both parties embraced the cause of day-care assistance during the last presidential campaign, and Democrats were trying to seize the political advantage on the popular issue. Less than a week ago, Democrats reported being close to a bipartisan agreement on the issue in White House negotiations that ultimately collapsed.

"I think President Bush, as he examines the bill, will find a lot more to be comfortable with than not," said a sponsor, Rep. Thomas Downey, D-N.Y.

"I think it will go down as a landmark bill, one of the great achievements of the Congress and this era in American government," said House Speaker Thomas Foley, D-Wash.

To offset part of the new child-care costs, the House plan would take away the income tax credit that more affluent families now receive for child care. That credit would be reduced for families earning $70,000 a year and eliminated for those earning more than $90,000.

The House approved the bill 265-145. Virginia Democrats Rick Boucher, L.F. Payne and Norman Sisisky and Republican Stanford Parris voted for the bill. Voting against it were Democrats Jim Olin and Owen Pickett, and Republicans Herbert Bateman, Thomas J. Bliley Jr., French Slaughter and Frank Wolf.

by CNB