ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 19, 1995 TAG: 9512190067
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
THE PRESIDENT VETOED two spending bills rather than accept the terms in them, while the House GOP vowed it will not give up its goal of making the chief executive sign its balanced-budget bill.
The budget deadlock between President Clinton and the Republican Congress did not ease Monday, and there was no sign that it or the latest partial government shutdown spawned by the impasse will end soon.
Clinton vetoed two spending bills rather than accept GOP terms in them, while House Republican leaders vowed they will never surrender their goal of driving Clinton to accept a balanced budget in seven years ``with honest numbers.'' Both sides blamed the other for their standoff
Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas said unless Clinton and Congress ``can accomplish something by Friday, [a deal is] not going to happen this year.''
But House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., insisted that Friday is not a ``magic date,'' even though it does precede the Christmas weekend. Republicans are ``going to stay and get the job done'' no matter how long it takes, Gingrich vowed.
Clinton talked by phone to Dole and Gingrich separately Monday afternoon to urge that the government be reopened.
Clinton offered two options: Resume balanced-budget talks without preconditions; or have Congress accept his proposals on Medicare and Medicaid spending in exchange for his accepting Congressional Budget Office calculations on the package.
While Dole said the phone call was a ``step in the right direction,'' Gingrich said offhandedly that he was ``confused'' after the conversation. His press secretary, Tony Blankley, described the contact as ``constructive but not definitive.''
After conferring, the two Republicans asked to meet with Clinton, and, according to a senior White House official, a meeting this afternoon appeared likely.
A senior House Republican, Rep. Robert Walker of Pennsylvania, reiterated the view of party conservatives that Clinton first must accede to a budget deal, on the GOP's terms, before the House would vote to end the shutdown.
``We have not altered our position on that by one inch,''he said.
Meanwhile Judy Kane, 38, a facilities manager for the Environmental Protection Agency, spoke for many of the 260,000 federal workers sent home from work Monday: ``It's all a joke. It's disgusting. I'm tired of being a pawn in their politics. It makes me even more embarrassed that I'm a government worker.''
Some 800,000 federal workers were furloughed for six days last month because of the Clinton-Congress budget confrontation. Fewer workers are out this time because several bills that provide operating funds for many agencies have been enacted since then.
But Clinton vetoed two big spending bills Monday. One would have provided fiscal 1996 money for the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Environmental Protection Agency. The second covered the Interior Department, which oversees the nation's public lands.
Clinton said the bills were unacceptable because they would ``roll back decades of environmental protection. It's wrong, and I cannot permit it to happen.''
EPA enforcement funds would have been slashed 25 percent and grants to local governments to promote clean drinking water by 45 percent, Clinton said. The Interior Department bill would have permitted clear-cutting in the Tongass National Forest of Alaska and allowed commercial development in the Mojave National Preserve in California, he said.
The president intends to veto a third spending bill - one providing funds for the Departments of State, Justice and Commerce - today, according to White House press secretary Mike McCurry.
This time, the furlough was not felt as much in the Poff Federal Building in Roanoke. Because the appropriations bills for various agencies had been approved since the last shutdown, the Internal Revenue Service, Social Security and other agencies did not have to send home the number of people they did last month.
The VA had to furlough workers and the only ones working at the National Park Service were law enforcement personnel. The big question on people's minds this time around: Will we get paid like last time?
Staff writer Jan Vertefeuille and The Associated Press contributed information to this story.
LENGTH: Medium: 85 linesby CNB