Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, November 20, 1995 TAG: 9511210050
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
``Tomorrow the government will go back to work, and now the debate will begin in earnest,'' President Clinton said, appearing in the White House press room shortly after the deal was announced.
By voice votes, the Senate and House adopted identical one-day measures to reopen the government. The Senate also approved a bill funding the government through Dec. 15, and the House planned to follow suit today.
Clinton signed the continuing resolution at 10:10 p.m. The 24-hour measure ``permits all government employees to return to work [Monday},'' White House spokesman Jim Fetig said.
Both sides declared victory - Republicans because the deal reflected their seven-year timetable, and Clinton because it spoke of protecting programs he considers important.
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said, ``I hope in the next three or four weeks we will produce a balanced budget with the president on board.''
In the four-week spending bill, the White House and Republicans agreed the balanced-budget legislation would ``protect future generations, secure Medicare solvency, reform welfare, provide adequate funding for Medicaid, education, agriculture, national defense, veterans and the environment.''
The bill does not, as the White House had sought, raise the government's $4.9 trillion borrowing ceiling. However, private experts agree the Treasury Department can avoid the ceiling for months by tapping retirement trust funds set aside for the civil service.
Sunday's agreement followed a long day of negotiating against a backdrop of restlessness among federal employees and the public. Forty percent of the federal work force - nearly 800,000 employees - have been on furlough.
In a compromise that was key to the agreement, the two sides said the Congressional Budget Office will measure whether or not any eventual budget deal eliminates deficits, but only after consulting with the White House and other government and private economists.
The argument over whose technical and economic assumptions are used is important because the White House budget office's forecast would permit nearly $500 billion more in spending over seven years than the congressional office's prediction.
Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., and House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., and their chief deputies held a news conference in which they were barely able to contain their euphoria.
``All I can say is, `Yes!''' said House Budget Committee Chairman John Kasich, thrusting two clenched fists in the air. Republicans credited Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., for the CBO compromise that proved key to the agreement.
A reporter asked Dole, ``Who blinked?'' He responded with two words and a smile: ``Seven years.''
But Clinton said the agreement ``represents the first sign of their [Republicans'] willingness to move forward without forcing unacceptable cuts ... on the American people.''
Senate Democratic Leader Thomas Daschle and the White House chief of staff, Leon Panetta, said the Democrats would be able to protect Medicare, Medicaid, education, the environment and a tax credit for working poor families. Clinton said he would veto a seven-year budget that failed to provide protections in these areas.
``It preserves all of our options,'' Daschle, D-S.D., said of the agreement.
by CNB