ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 26, 1996 TAG: 9601260099
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press|
The House overwhelmingly approved legislation Thursday to keep federal agencies running through March 15. The White House said President Clinton would sign it as the yearlong budget fires cooled.
After settling an impasse with the White House over abortion restrictions and spending levels, the House voted 371-42 for a stopgap measure to temporarily finance dozens of federal agencies at lower levels than 1995. All of Virginia's representatives voted for the bill. The Senate was expected to approve it today.
``Let's quit wasting the taxpayers' money,'' said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bob Livingston, R-La. Reflecting his party's new, less confrontational mode, he added, ``Let's keep the government open.''
White House spokesman Mike McCurry said, ``We're satisfied that a lot of give-and-take has produced an agreement the president can live with.''
Lawmakers had faced a deadline tonight that could have led to civil servants being furloughed for an embarrassing third time since November.
After a drubbing in public opinion polls, Republicans were no longer vowing to halt government's most basic functions unless their demands were met for a balanced budget in seven years .
Both sides seemed to feel the best path now was to settle immediate differences and save their most stubborn disputes over Medicare, Medicaid and welfare until next year.
Not all the embers from the budget inferno were dead. Despite an apparent truce over extending the debt limit and pressure from Wall Street to do so, the two sides fenced over how it would be accomplished.
For the next seven weeks, the stopgap spending measure would finance many agencies whose 1996 budgets are incomplete, including the departments of Veterans Affairs, Interior, Labor and the Environmental Protection Agency. Most would receive less than they got in 1995, and 10 minor programs - such as money for native Hawaiian and Alaska native cultural arts - would be eliminated. None of Clinton's major initiatives would be cut below 75 percent of last year's levels.
The measure included $12 billion for foreign aid for the rest of the fiscal year.
In a compromise between conservatives and abortion-rights lawmakers, the measure would block U.S. funds to international family planning programs, but only until July. After that, the money could be dispersed at 65 percent of last year's levels. The program would thus spend $367 million over the next year and a half. It also would limit embryo research.
The bill also would provide, for the first time, that federal workers could be furloughed or laid off by agencies looking for savings. During the first two shutdowns, furloughs occurred only in programs that had no spending authority.
Separately, there was continued support for the idea both sides embraced Wednesday of putting limited spending and tax cuts onto a measure that would extend the government's debt limit. Without that bill, the administration has predicted that by March 1, Treasury would be unable to pay federal obligations for the first time in history - which could cause widespread financial disruptions.
A day after House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., said he hoped the debt-limit measure also could carry $100 billion in spending cuts and $29 billion in tax reductions, White House chief of staff Leon Panetta said he did not know what was achievable.
But Panetta said talks at a staff level could begin today.
Republicans tried to soothe concerns that they would spark a stalemate that could cause a federal default.
``I understand our responsibility on the debt ceiling and know we have to raise the debt ceiling,'' said House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas.
But they insisted they would spend the rest of the year pressing Clinton to accept as many budget cuts as possible, including on the debt-limit measure.
LENGTH: Medium: 75 linesby CNB