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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 16, 1994                   TAG: 9411170044
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times|
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

CLINTON WOULD 'DISCUSS' SCHOOL PRAYER

``I'll be glad to discuss it with them,'' the president said at a news conference at an economic conference in Jakarta. ``I want to see what the details [of a school prayer proposal] are. I certainly wouldn't rule it out. It depends on what it says.''

In Washington, White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta indicated further agreement with GOP leaders, saying the two sides can agree on trade and congressional reform. Emerging from the first post-election meeting between an administration official and the new Republican leadership, Panetta rejected proposed Republican tax cuts, saying they would swell the federal deficit and weaken the strengthening economy.

Clinton was asked at his news conference if the country needs a constitutional amendment restoring prayer to public schools.

``What I think the country needs - and what I think the schools need - is a sense that there are certain basic values of citizenship, including valuing the right of people to have and express their faith, which can be advocated without crossing the line of separation of church and state and without in any way undermining the fabric of our society ... '' the president said.

``I have always supported voluntary prayer in the schools; I have always thought that the question was, when does voluntary prayer really become coercive to people who have different religious views from those who are in the majority in any particular classroom.''

After an hourlong ``courtesy call'' with Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., who is expected to be speaker of the House in the next Congress, and Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., who is expected to be Senate majority leader, in Dole's Capitol Hill offices, Panetta said that if the Republicans are serious about balancing the federal budget in five years, their proposed tax cuts and increased defense spending would require cutting a trillion dollars from the federal government at the same time.

``Whatever the outcome of the election, we all have a responsibility of helping to move this country forward,'' Panetta said. ``We have to be very straight with the American people.''

Neither Dole nor Gingrich offered any public comment after the meeting.