Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 20, 1994 TAG: 9402200021
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
With supporters needing 67 votes for the two-thirds majority constitutional amendments require, 60 senators said they would vote "yes" or were likely to do so. Twenty-seven others said they opposed the proposal or probably would - seven short of the 34 "no" votes foes will need to prevail.
Virginia's senators, Democrat Charles Robb and Republican John Warner, are co-sponsors of the amendment.
Only Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, refused to answer the survey, which was conducted last week.
The Senate's showdown debate on the measure could begin as early as Tuesday and last a week or more. Its outcome is crucial because should the chamber vote its approval, House passage is considered likely. The amendment fell one vote short of passage the last time the Senate debated it in 1986, 66-34.
"Neither side has enough votes as of today," chief opponent Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., said Friday, a sentiment echoed by main sponsor, Sen. Paul Simon, D-Ill.
Byrd added that he wouldn't try to block a vote. "When the matter ripens, we should vote," he said.
Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole said Saturday that he thinks the margin might be even smaller than the AP found. "I would say we're two or three votes short," Dole, who supports the amendment, said on NBC-TV.
The amendment would require balanced federal budgets beginning in the year 2001 unless three-fifths of the members of the House and Senate voted to allow a deficit. But it does not state how deficits will be eliminated.
Supporters say the measure would aim the Constitution's clout at politicians who have run up 25 straight years of red ink, bringing the government's total debt to $4.4 trillion.
Foes say the amendment is a political charade that would not resolve age-old disputes over whose taxes to raise or programs to trim to balance the budget. They add that if it did work, the cuts it would force would be devastating.
Debate commences after a week of all-out lobbying. The Clinton administration and labor groups unleashed studies predicting widespread havoc in federal programs should the amendment be enacted. Simon produced a letter of support from 254 economists. And Simon and Byrd each paraded platoons of supportive witnesses at rival hearings.
Recent weeks have also seen President Clinton and the Democratic leaders of the House and Senate vying for votes behind the scenes against the liberal Simon and his mostly conservative supporters. The measure starts with 55 co-sponsors, including Simon.
Hard at work has been Byrd, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which controls how - and in whose states - one-third of the $1.5 trillion budget is spent.
"I'm talking with my colleagues," Byrd said. "I've been doing that for some time."
As debate begins, 12 senators told The Associated Press they remain undecided.
Of the 60 senators who said they expected to support the amendment, 21 are Democrats and 39 are Republicans.
Twenty-six Democrats plus Sen. Mark Hatfield, R-Ore., listed themselves as opponents.
by CNB