White House and GOP negotiators agree on plan for 100,000 new teachers, search for extra funds

November 11, 1999
Web posted at: 6:58 p.m. EST (2358 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Breaking a major impasse in budget negotiations, Republicans have agreed to President Bill Clinton's plan to hire thousands of new teachers, allowing congressional and White House negotiators to turn their attention to finding extra cash and completing a final budget agreement.

The administration and congressional Republicans also agreed late Wednesday to restore $11 billion in Medicare cuts to hospitals and nursing homes enacted two years ago in the landmark balanced budget bill.

In this story:

White House's top priority

Outstanding issues

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The agreements mean both sides may be drawing closer to a final budget deal, possibly by early next week.

Speaking in the Oval Office early Thursday afternoon, Clinton claimed victory on the teacher hiring issue -- a major sticking point that threatened to hold up the entire budget finalization process.

"This agreement keeps us on track to hire 100,000 new teachers by 2005," Clinton said. "Not just more teachers, but better ones. Under this agreement, 25 percent of the funds may be used to train and test new teachers."

A number of nagging budget issues remain to be resolved. As congressional and White House negotiators and staff members met into Wednesday evening -- and worked over the telephone Thursday -- they abandoned hope of finishing in time for Congress to adjourn for the year on Friday. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Mississippi) sent the Senate home for Veterans Day, and planned no votes in the chamber until at least next Wednesday.

House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) relented on his planned schedule for the chamber Thursday morning, when his office announced House members will not be required back in Washington until next Tuesday morning.

Armey endured fierce criticism from House members -- particularly minority Democrats -- for his stated intention to hold a House session Friday, giving far-flung members little time to return from their districts after Veterans Day.

Armey said Thursday that House leaders were serious about getting the budget work over with on Friday, but there was no point in keeping House members in town if the Senate was not to be in session.

"We discovered that Elvis had left the building," Armey quipped.

Staff members continued their arduous negotiations Thursday, and exchanged a number of telephone calls in an attempt to scrape together some $6.5 billion in savings to compensate for extra money that is expected to be added to outstanding fiscal 2000 government spending bills.

Staff members, who did not wish to be identified, said both sides were discussing the possibility of raising money by selling portions of the broadcast spectrum, and by putting off for one day the September 30, 2000, payday for military personnel -- saving an estimated $2 billion.

Should the negotiators manage to agree on $6.5 billion in savings, or "offsets," Republicans and Democrats would be able to claim credit for not dipping in the Social Security surplus, and a contested GOP plan to cut .97 percent from every federal government spending bill would be off the table.

Under the agreement on education funding reached Wednesday night by Republicans -- led by House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman Rep. Bill Goodling (R-Pennsylvania) and White House Domestic Policy Adviser Bruce Reed -- $1.3 billion will be spent on the classroom reduction program, just short of President Clinton's $1.4 billion request.

Negotiators agreed that 75 percent of the approved funding would be spent on new teacher hires, and 25 percent on teacher quality and certification, giving school districts slightly more flexibility in how they use the funds.

Current law states that 85 percent of funds in the program must be used to hire new teachers.

White House's top priority

The White House had made the teachers proposal its highest priority in ongoing budget negotiations, but Republicans had pressed to give local school districts more leeway on how to use the money.

Under the agreement, teachers hired under the program would have to be certified. If more than 10 percent of the teachers in a school district were uncertified, the district could use the funds for teacher training and development.

Also, GOP negotiators said, they received agreement to end the president's 'Goals 2000' program, which sets national education standards, at the end of this fiscal year.

Although Republicans agreed to the president's top-priority proposal, they were quick to claim victory in the deal.

"This is a major victory for parents, teachers and school boards, so they can have a greater role in how federal education dollars are spent," said Pete Jeffries, spokesman for the House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Illinois).

Outstanding issues

The deal on the teachers proposal was expected to speed settlement of a range of outstanding budget issues.

Republicans and Democrats are still working toward an agreement to pay off $926 million in back dues to the United Nations -- which are still held up by a dispute over language relating to overseas abortions.

Armey described the abortion fight Thursday as a "potential show stopper," saying it was an issue of the heart for some conservative lawmakers. He predicted it would be the last item settled.

Armey said Wednesday he thought he was close to an agreement with the White House on letting the International Monetary Fund revalue its gold to give limited debt relief to poor countries.

Still to be resolved: Sen. Robert Byrd (D-West Virginia) wants any final budget bill to include a provision overturning a federal judge's decision that restricts coal mining on mountain tops in his state, and Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisconsin) has threatened to block spending bills until a dairy product distribution dispute is resolved.

Continuing negotiations notwithstanding, a final budget deal will be impossible before next week, when the House and Senate return to work.

Correspondent Bob Franken, Capitol Hill producer Dana Bash and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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