Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 20, 1994 TAG: 9401200134
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID HESS KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Long
A national health-care plan, welfare reform, a sweeping anti-crime bill, major education reform and revamping the clean-water law are all top priorities. Each issue is as controversial as it is mind-bendingly complex.
Congress also is poised to consider campaign finance and lobbying reforms, a constitutional amendment for a balanced budget, a Senate proposal to cut another $109 billion from the budget, and a major overhaul of the 1872 mining law that now gives private entrepreneurs virtually unfettered access to federal lands.
And there is the Senate ethics committee's probe of alleged sexual misconduct by Sen. Bob Packwood, R-Ore., and a bill to streamline federal banking regulation.
And don't forget the legislation renewing the lapsed independent counsel law that Republicans now have decided is needed to clear the way for an investigation of President Clinton's role in a soured Arkansas real estate venture.
All of this and at least a dozen other important issues, including new fights over defense spending and a bill guaranteeing unmolested access to abortion clinics, await lawmakers when they return for business.
The entire playbill will be acted out against a bitterly partisan election year backdrop.
Democrats will struggle to strengthen their president and their own hold on congressional majorities as Republicans strive to undercut Clinton, boost their numbers in the House, and seize the Senate.
Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., already has sent notice that he doesn't believe the president's first priority - health care - is all that important. "There's no health-care crisis," he said. Unfortunately for Clinton, Democrat Daniel Patrick Moynihan, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, recently said the same thing.
Dole is pushing a GOP plan for welfare reform, a subject Clinton would like to hold over until next year to make time for health care.
The two parties also are sharply divided over gun-control provisions in the crime bill; most Democrats want tougher restrictions on handguns and assault rifles. And the parties are deadlocked over campaign finance reform, mining reform, spending priorities and several other issues.
Here's the outlook for some of the major issues in Congress:
Health care
Apart from a deep philosophical split between the parties, Clinton has failed to marshal a consensus among Democrats favoring the sweeping changes called for in his plan. Two alternatives are attracting large blocs of Democrats.
Clinton's proposal also has drawn sharp criticism from powerful lobbies - doctors, hospitals, small businesses - that could, together with GOP opposition in the Senate, thwart any but the most modest reforms.
Welfare
The president has suggested a plan that would deny benefits after two years to able-bodied welfare recipients. His proposal would require them to go to school or enroll in job-training programs, then get a job afterward. If no private-sector jobs were available, they would have to work in federally subsidized public-service jobs.
Though quarreling with some of the details of Clinton's plan, Republicans generally support his approach - and are insisting he press on with it this year.
Crime
The Senate has passed a $23 billion crime bill that calls for longer sentences for crimes involving guns and other violent offenses, the death penalty for 52 federal offenses, more prisons, life sentences for three-time felons, federal subsidies to put 100,000 new cops on the beat, tighter restrictions on appeals by death-row inmates, and a ban on trafficking in new semiautomatic assault weapons.
The House has passed several individual bills and will go to conference with the Senate to work out a compromise. Gun enthusiasts detest the assault weapons ban, and some Republicans want even tougher measures against drug-pushers and violent offenders.
Education
The Senate is considering a House-passed bill that would deal out $420 million to help local schools meet new national academic standards and require student testing to measure attainment of those standards.
In addition, Clinton wants to rework the $6.7 billion elementary and secondary education act to concentrate more aid in districts with the highest numbers of poor children. He will encounter strong opposition from members representing wealthier districts.
Clean water
With the Clean Water Act up for renewal, sponsors want to strengthen pollution-control efforts by restricting pesticide runoff from farms, salt and oil runoff from highways and city streets, and silt from construction sites. Such changes likely would be opposed by interested parties because they would be expensive and add to the financial burden of farmers, states, cities and building contractors.
Also, an effort will be made to reach a compromise between environmentalists and builders over preservation of wetlands. Real estate developers say the government's approach to wetlands development now is too restrictive and is impeding legitimate projects. Ecologists say the loss of wetlands continues at an unacceptable pace and that even stronger protection is necessary.
Ethics
With public regard for Congress plummeting, members are under intense pressure to wrap up the Packwood sexual misconduct case. Voters also expect them to enact genuine reforms of the way they finance their election campaigns, to curb the influence of special-interest lobbies, and to streamline their rules to make them more responsive to the nation's problems.
The Senate is likely to deal with the Packwood case as swiftly as possible. Both houses also are certain to adopt new restrictions on accepting gifts and other favors from lobbies. But campaign and internal reforms are snared in partisan disputes. If anything emerges, it probably will amount to little more than a cosmetic makeover with no real effect on campaign practices or the chronic inertia that grips Congress.
by CNB