Budget disputes stall amid partisan sniping

September 29, 1999
Web posted at: 7:19 p.m. EDT (2319 GMT)

WASHINGTON -- With the new fiscal year fast approaching on Friday, little work was done Wednesday on overdue spending bills and partisan rhetoric heated up over budget disputes.

But the urgency to pass the eight remaining budget bills eased because President Bill Clinton plans to sign an stopgap spending bill that will fund the government's operations through October 21.

Disputes among the GOP and between Republicans and Democrats held up several bills. Republicans lacked the votes to even try voting on the $12.6 billion foreign aid bill through the House. Democrats solidly opposed the bill due to $2 billion cut from Clinton's proposal and traditional Republican foreign aid opponents and conservatives were angry that language was dropped barring money for groups seeking to ease abortion laws overseas.

In the Senate, lawmakers debated for hours over Clinton's plan to hire 100,000 additional teachers, slowing work on a $324 billion measure financing labor, health, and education programs.

The result was a near party-line 53-45 to provide $1.2 billion that states could use for hiring teachers, buying school equipment or other educational purposes -- contingent on passage of a separate bill creating the new program. Clinton proposed $1.4 billion, specifically for continuing to pay the first 29,000 teachers hired last year and to hire 8,000 more.

"If we'd follow the Republican position, we'd put Uncle Sam on the sidelines" for education, said Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Massachusetts),adding that the new program might never be approved.

Sen. Judd Gregg (R-New Hampshire) said Democrats were mainly interested in a political issue.

"That's why this has been put forward. This is a polling event," Gregg said.

The president has threatened to veto the legislation funding the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education. He said the legislation does not contain enough money to hire teachers, cuts funding for education technology and underfunds after- school programs and a mentoring program for college-bound students.

"If this bill were to come to me in its current form I would have to veto it," said the president in a written statement.

The president did sign legislation Wednesday that doubles the next president's salary to $400,000 gives members of Congress a pay increases of $4,600 or more. Vice President Al Gore, Cabinet secretaries and about bout 1,300 other top-level executive branch officials would also receive pay raises next January.

The raises and a 4.8 percent increase in federal civil servants' salaries were part of a $28 billion measure financing the Treasury Department and some smaller agencies for fiscal year 2000.

The president signed the bill in an Oval Office ceremony. In a brief statement, Clinton did not mention the pay raises but noted the law will require health plans for federal employees to offer prescription contraceptive coverage, with an exception for plans that object to such coverage on religious grounds.

The White House has veto threats against five other spending bills. Of the 13 annual spending measures, Congress has completed five. Clinton has signed two and vetoed one.

Meanwhile, the House GOP leaders are proposing delaying payments to low-income families and trimming adoption and other programs in a search for ways to pay for snagged spending bills.

Top House GOP lawmakers discussed the plan Wednesday with rank-and-file Republicans as Congress attempts to finish more of the remaining spending measures for the new fiscal year.

The GOP is searching for ways to pay for the spending bills so they won't violate their claim they are not using Social Security surpluses to pay for extra spending. "It's called truth in budgeting," House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, (R-Texas) said Tuesday when asked about the proposal.

The proposed savings would exceed $9 billion for next year. Most of it -- $8.7 billion -- would come from paying earned-income credits in monthly installments instead of the lump sum most of the 20 million recipients currently receive. The money goes to people who owe little or no income taxes.

Many Republicans dismissed the idea as too harsh when it was floated two weeks ago. But House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) called it "a common sense approach" that would mainly affect recipients who pay no income taxes, adding, "I would say it is denying them the lump sum acceptance of my money."

The White House immediately attacked the idea.

"What does it say about their priorities and their values that they tax the poorest families ... as their preferred solution to escape the budgetary mess they created for themselves," White House economic adviser Gene Sperling said.

The GOP is placing a large amount of political emphasis on Social Security. House Republicans launched a "Stop the raid" campaign Wednesday that will include television ads accusing Clinton and Democrats of planning to raid the pension system's trust funds.

"Under no circumstances will I vote to spend one penny of the Social Security trust fund on anything but Social Security," said DeLay.

But Clinton Administration officials said Republicans were already breaking their own pledge.

"They are well on their way to dipping into the Social Security surplus," White House chief of staff John Podesta said. "They ought to stop lying about it."

And even some Republicans were concerned by their leaders' emphasis on Social Security, fearing the promises may come back to haunt them.

"That's kind of an absolute statement," said Rep. Ray LaHood, (R-Illinois).

"If the impression comes out that we're into Social Security but not admitting it, that's almost worse than" simply spending the money, said Rep. Mark Souder, (R-Indiana).

On Tuesday, Clinton vetoed the bill that funds the District of Columbia's government, blaming GOP provisions that restricted the local government's power. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott criticized the president's action, saying Clinton "vetoed this bill because of some really left-wing social programs," Lott said.

CNN's Chris Black and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Budget disputes stall amid partisan sniping

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Wednesday, September 29, 1999