THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 10, 1994 TAG: 9410100039
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Long : 229 lines
In the end, it was the Democrat-controlled Congress that couldn't.
Couldn't get together on health reform, President Clinton's plan to provide insurance coverage for millions who now go without.
Couldn't fashion a compromise on campaign spending reform until late in the year, when it fell to a Republican filibuster.
Couldn't peel off enough votes to overcome Republican obstruction on lobbying reform, environmental measures and other bills in the final days of the session.
``Fast start, slow finish, too much rancor,'' Rep. Pat Williams, D-Mont., summed up the 103rd Congress, which began work by pledging, under a new Democratic president, to end a dozen years of government gridlock.
Two years later, Democrats said their 1993 deficit-reduction bill had fueled economic growth and jobs creation, and sharply attacked Republicans for thwarting several end-of-session measures.
``It's not a question of majority rule, it's a question of minority obstructionism,'' House Speaker Thomas Foley, D-Wash., said before bringing down the gavel that sent House members home to campaign. They will return briefly after Thanksgiving to vote on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the global trade accord.
Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, D-Maine, accused Republicans of a ``cynical effort to discredit the Congress. . . then persuade the people that because Congress wasn't working, they should be put in charge.''
Republicans did not duck the obstructionist label.
Clinton's health reform failed because the public ``didn't want to tear down the greatest health care system and rebuild it in the image of the post office,'' said Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, an architect of the GOP legislative end game.
With the Senate's final pre-election session drawing to a close Saturday, Republican Leader Bob Dole of Kansas objected to what he called loose use by Democrats of such terms as ``gridlock'' ``filibuster'' and ``obstruction.''
``Our party's opposition has been motivated by honest differences in philosophy, not partisan petty politics,'' Dole declared. ``We make no apologies for parking in the political intersection to protect the American taxpayers from bad legislation.''
``It's not obstruction if the country wants you to do something.'' echoed House GOP Whip Newt Gingrich of Georgia, the driving force behind a Republican campaign called ``Contract For America.'' The pact offers a Reagan-like platform of tax and spending cuts and a balanced budget amendment.
That has left the voters to choose, in a little less than a month, a new, 104th Congress.
As for the old, there was pathos: 84-year-old Rep. William Natcher of Kentucky was wheeled into the House chamber on a hospital gurney to answer his 18,401st consecutive - and last - roll call.
And there was log-rolling: A multibillion-dollar bill to provide relief for the 1993 California earthquake swelled to include $10 million in redesign funds for Pennsylvania Station in New York.
It was an institution in transition: Newly elected women senators waged a battle against senior military officers deemed insufficiently attentive to sexual harassment. It also boasted a record crop of 115 freshmen House members.
There was rancor.
``Your president is just not that important to us,'' Texas GOP Rep. Richard Armey blurted in late summer when Democrats said Republican opposition to a crime bill was designed to deny Clinton a victory - any victory.
``I have served here for 30 years,'' Foley replied. ``Richard Nixon was my president, our president, Ronald Reagan was our president, George Bush was our president and Bill Clinton is our president.''
Clinton stood shoulder to shoulder with the Democratic leaders shortly after his election to pledge a new era of cooperation.
In short order, they resurrected items from President Bush's veto list, including guaranteed unpaid leave for workers with a family medical emergency.
The deficit-reduction plan was approved with Herculean effort. The final product, designed to cut red ink by nearly $500 billion, included spending cuts, a gasoline tax increase and income tax increases on the wealthy. Republicans opposed it unanimously in both houses, and Democrats muscled it through on the strength of a nerve-wracking one-vote margin in the House and Vice President Al Gore's tie-breaker in the Senate.
The Brady Bill to establish a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases passed at year's end over a Republican filibuster.
And by attracting a handful of Republican votes, Democrats broke filibusters on campaign finance and motor voter bills.
Bipartisanship ruled on the North American Free Trade Act. With Republicans providing the majority of votes in both houses, and two top Democratic House leaders opposing Clinton, the trade agreement with Mexico and Canada cleared near the end of 1993.
But partisan lines hardened swiftly in 1994 when work began on Clinton's ambitious plan for health care reform, a blend of cost controls and universal insurance coverage.
Republicans said the measure was too complex and too bureaucratic. Democrats, divided, missed deadline after deadline for committee action, while ignoring sharply scaled-back Republican alternatives. In the end, the effort collapsed, despite months of meetings of a bipartisan group in the Senate.
Despite a 78-vote majority, the Democratic leadership lost control of a massive crime bill on the House floor in August, forcing Clinton into negotiations with the GOP to salvage the measure.
West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd, student of history and senior Democrat in the Senate after 36 years, summed up: The struggles of the past two years will become ``paragraphs in the history of this institution.'' MEMO: ACTION ON THE HILL
LEGISLATION APPROVED
Economic
Deficit reduction: Congress approved President Clinton's
deficit-reduction program by slender margins in 1993, with all
Republicans in opposition. The final compromise, which included spending
cuts and tax increases on the wealthy, envisioned deficit savings of
nearly $500 billion.
Nanny tax: The Social Security ``nanny tax,'' which tripped up
several Clinton administration nominees, was eased. The bill requires
household employers to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes on any
worker earning at least $1,000 a year, up from the current threshold of
$50 a quarter. Teenage baby sitters would be exempt.
Crime
Brady Bill: A five-day waiting period for purchases of handguns
passed in late 1993, after Democrats overcame a Republican filibuster.
Crime Bill: Included an expanded death penalty; money for more police
officers; a ban on certain assault-style weapons and tougher prison
sentences. The bill nearly died in the House but was rescued after
Democrats and the administration agreed to House Republican demands to
reduce spending on crime prevention programs.
Reform
Congressional compliance: The House approved rules changes to place
itself under jurisdiction of several federal laws.
Reinventing government: Approved bills to cut the federal work force
and reform the government's purchasing practices.
Ethics
Independent Counsel: Reinstates lapsed authority for appointment of
independent counsels to probe alleged wrongdoing by senior government
officials. Expanded to include members of Congress.
Education
Student loans: Made the student loan program more affordable.
Aid to education: Renewed federal aid to education, gradually
increasing funds for disadvantaged students. Passed despite a
late-session Republican-led filibuster.
Head Start: Expanded the preschool program, fulfilling a campaign
pledge by Clinton.
Goals 2000: Established national education goals and standards for
the first time.
Foreign policy
Aid to Russia: By bipartisan majorities, both houses approved
Clinton's call for increased aid to Russia in 1993.
China: The House approved Clinton's decision to extend most-favored
nation trading status to China.
Haiti: Both houses approved nonbinding resolutions calling for a
``prompt and orderly withdrawal'' of troops from Haiti as soon as
possible.
Trade
NAFTA: With Republicans providing the majority of votes, both houses
approved the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1993 over the
opposition of labor-backed Democrats.
Other
Abortion clinic access: Made it a crime to obstruct access to places
where abortions are performed.
Agriculture: Legislation reorganizing the Department of Agriculture
was approved in the final days of the session.
Banking: Permitted banks to branch across state lines, lifting
decades-old restrictions. Another bill authorized $500 million over four
years to stimulate community development lending in inner cities and
distressed rural areas.
Environment: Protected 6.6 million acres of southeastern California
desert from development.
Family and medical leave: Requires larger companies to provide
workers with up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for family illness. The
measure was similar to one vetoed by former President Bush.
Hatch Act: Loosened restrictions on political activity by federal
workers. Bush vetoed a similar bill.
Military base closing: Ratified decision by an independent base
closure commission to mothball dozens of military installations.
Motor voter: Require states to permit voter registration at the time
of application for drivers' licenses. Passed over filibuster in 1993;
Bush had vetoed a similar bill.
National service: A new national service program won approval in
early 1994, redeeming one of Clinton's most prominent campaign
promises.
Social Security: Created an independent Social Security
Administration.
LEGISLATION DEFEATED
Health reform: The effort that dominated Congress in 1994 came to
nothing. Clinton's plan for universal coverage financed largely by
employers failed to generate enough support among Democrats for passage.
Attempts at bipartisanship fell short among senators and House members,
and Democrats rejected sharply scaled-back Republican proposals.
Stimulus package: Clinton's $16.3 billion economic stimulus package
died in a Republican filibuster in 1993.
Balanced budget amendment: A constitutional amendment to require a
balanced federal budget was killed in the Senate in 1994.
Campaign finance: Both houses approved campaign finance legislation
in 1993, but it wasn't until the waning days of the session in 1994 that
House and Senate Democratic leaders agreed on a compromise. A year-end
Republican filibuster killed the measure.
Clean water: Legislation overhauling the nation's clean water laws
died.
Safe drinking water: Legislation overhauling the nation's safe
drinking water laws died in the final days of the session.
Gifts and lobbying: Legislation to ban virtually all gifts to
lawmakers and tighten federal reporting requirements on lobbyists passed
the House but died in a Republican-led filibuster.
Congressional streamlining: Proposals to reduce committees and make
other changes in Congress' internal workings died.
Striker replacement: A House-passed bill to ban the hiring of
permanent strikebreakers died in a Senate filibuster.
Telecommunications: A comprehensive rewrite of the nation's
telecommunications law died in the Senate at the end of the year.
Superfund: Legislation to restructure the program for cleanup of
toxic waste material died in the final days of the session, largely
because of Republican demands for amendments.
Mining law: An administration-led effort to overhaul mining laws,
with increased royalty fees, died in House-Senate compromise talks.
LEGISLATION DEFERRED
GATT: Consideration of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade was
postponed to a lame-duck session, with votes scheduled for Nov. 29 in
the House and Dec. 1 in the Senate.
ILLUSTRATION: Photos
Thomas Foley
Bob Dole
KEYWORDS: CONGRESS SENATE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
LEGISLATION PUBLIC LAW by CNB