Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, July 26, 1990                   TAG: 9007260312
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

LEAVE BILL DEFEATED

The House voted 232-195 to override the veto, falling 53 votes short of the required two-thirds majority. Supporters lost five votes since the bill's passage in May.

Rep. Patricia Schroeder, D-Colo., noting polls show most Americans support family leave, said it will be a campaign issue this fall.

"We are not going to quit," she said. "Once again, Washington has nothing for families but kind words."

Republicans and some conservative Democrats defended Bush's veto, saying the bill would hurt workers by preventing employers from offering other types of benefits.

Rep. Steve Bartlett, R-Texas, praised Bush for his "courageous veto" and charged the bill would have imposed a "one-size-fits-all benefit" without regard to need.

Bush vetoed it last month after it passed the House with bipartisan support and was adopted in the Senate on a voice vote. It was his 13th veto.

Fifty-seven Democrats voted with Bush to sustain the veto, along with 138 Republicans. Voting to override were 194 Democrats and 38 Republicans.

All Virginia congressman voted to sustain the veto except Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, who voted to override it.

The bill would have required employers of more than 50 workers to provide unpaid, job-protected leave of up to 12 weeks to those with new babies, family illness or other emergencies. Those in a company's highest-paid 10 percent would have been exempted.

Bush said he supported the concept but opposed the bill as a burden on employers.

Business groups had strongly opposed it. More than 50 lobbyists from a coalition of business groups were on Capitol Hill Wednesday sporting buttons that said "Sustain the Veto."

Supporters argued the bill provided nothing more than a minimal right - not a benefit - that is available in most other industrialized nations.

Democrats promised to reintroduce the measure.

Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., predicted, "George Bush is going to have a family leave bill on his desk every year he is in office."

He said a new Senate version would be introduced this week, although he acknowledged there may be no further action this year.