Subject: White House, Congress budget negotiations begin Tuesday

Administration and congressional budget negotiators will begin meetings Tuesday afternoon to see if they can narrow their differences on balancing the federal budget by the year 2002.

An administration official foresees the negotiators meeting throughout this week with President Bill Clinton, then inviting congressional leaders to the White House next week. Clinton promised to push toward a balanced budget after the Easter recess. Republican sources on Capitol Hill are not as optimistic as the administration sources, suggesting there is no reason to push to meeting with Clinton until the differences have really narrowed.

Senate majority leader Trent Lott, speaking with reporters today, continued to criticize the president. Lott cited three areas in the Clinton budget -- Medicare, entitlement spending and tax relief -- which he said "did not show... courage."

During the congressional recess, at least eight staff-level meetings were held to walk through the budget as proposed by the Clinton Administration. There is, as yet, no Republican budget proposal.

While Congress is supposed to approve a budget resolution by April 15, it is a deadline as often breached as honored. Republican sources indicate it is quite possible that a budget resolution will come about, likely late, and then essentially be set aside. Separate reconciliation bills addressing tax cuts, Medicare and spending could be subsequently passed.

Republican sources involved in the budget process say there is less internal confusion about House Speaker Newt Gingrich's assertion about a separate vote on tax cuts. They understood it to be a reconciliation bill later in the year. It remains the Republican conservatives who saw Gingrich's statement as a retreat from conservative principles.