Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 24, 1993 TAG: 9311240158
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Cox News Service
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
"Gridlock is gone," said House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo. "It's history."
"I've been to Capitol Hill, I think, 15 times," Clinton said. "This is only the second time in 60 years when there's been no presidential veto in a year."
House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., said that when Republican and Democratic leaders met Tuesday with Clinton, "We said to him, he clearly came out of the year better than he went in. I think in that sense, yeah, I think President Clinton has every reason to feel pretty good right now."
Leaders in both parties agreed that the biggest battles in 1994 will be over issues Clinton has stressed: reforms of health care and welfare; completion of crime, lobbying and campaign finance bills; and more struggles over where to cut spending.
The House finished its 1993 business early Tuesday, but the Senate remained hung up on approval of the Brady bill to require a five-day waiting period for buying handguns.
The president, after an initial rebuff over his $16 billion stimulus plan, assembled a series of shifting coalitions to drive major proposals through Congress. His $16 billion short-term stimulus plan, which was trimmed to $4 billion, was the only major casualty.
Clinton got Democrats to pass a five-year budget plan without any Republican votes. Then he got Republicans and a few Democrats to approve a trade agreement with Mexico and Canada despite opposition from most House Democrats.
Dole said bipartisan cooperation to aid Midwestern flood victims and to pass the North American Free Trade Agreement showed that gridlock can end.
Listing next year's "big areas" for Democrats, Gephardt said, "I think health care is obviously No. 1. I think jobs, and the creation of better jobs in the country, and the economy will be no. 2, and I think no. 3 will be welfare reform and education reform, [and jobless-worker] training reform."
Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell of Maine predicted quick compromises on crime bills and campaign finance reforms "early next year."
"If we continue at this pace, I believe that the 103rd Congress will go down in history as one of the most productive in modern times," Mitchell said.
Dole credited Clinton with having "put health care reform at the top of our national agenda" for next year.
Crime-fighting, job creation and welfare reform will be the top GOP priorities in the House, Gingrich said. Minority Leader Robert Michel, R-Ill., added health care reform to that list.
Leaders in both parties agreed that next year they'll repeat some of the past year's epic confrontations over where to cut federal spending. The switch from whether to cut to where to cut was locked into place by the anti-deficit sentiments of the large freshman classes in both chambers, the leaders said.
Michel said that in 1993 the two high points for Republicans were convincing Clinton to abandon his proposed tax on all sources of energy, "primarily because of what Republicans had done," and the approval of the North American Free Trade Agreement, when Republicans fought on the Democratic president's side.
"NAFTA has to be a high mark for us, and kind of unique, even for me, I guess, during all my years of leadership," said Michel, who has announced he will retire when his term ends next year. "You had a Democratic president and a Democratic Congress, [yet the] Republicans in the Congress turned out to be the key factors in making sure that it passed."
However, Rep. Dick Armey, R-Texas, said the session failed to brighten his dim view of Democrats.
"They started the year trying to raise taxes and fighting off the Republican effort to stop that, and they finished the year thwarting the Republican effort . . . last night to cut spending," said Armey, who thought a plan for $90 billion for cuts would be better than the $37 billion in cuts pushed through the House by the Democrats.
Clinton said one change next year will be a new White House lobbyist. He praised Howard Paster, who will be leaving the White House at the end of the year, for doing a "wonderful job." Clinton said he's looking for a replacement willing to work for "low pay and long hours."
by CNB