Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 28, 1995 TAG: 9509280050
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Democrats lacked the votes to make substantial changes in the bill, and urged President Clinton to veto it. The House previously approved equal or deeper spending cuts.
The Senate's 55-45 approval came after Republicans rebuffed Democratic attempts to restore funds for cleanup of toxic dumps, help for the homeless and health programs for veterans.
Sen. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska was the lone Democrat to join the Republicans in passing the bill.
The legislation is the first of three broad spending bills considered by the Senate this week. Minority Leader Thomas Daschle, D-S.D., called the bills ``extremism on parade'' and said a veto is needed. ``There's no point in trying to fine-tune this mess,'' he declared.
The Senate bill would cut the Environmental Protection Agency's budget by one-fourth to $5.6 billion, including a $430 million slash in its Superfund program for toxic waste cleanup. Clinton had sought an increase to $7.3 billion.
It also would cut housing programs by $5 billion, one-fifth of current spending, and reduce veterans' programs by $395 million.
The EPA budget reduction - though less severe than that approved by the House - still ``places the American public at serious risk,'' said EPA Administrator Carol Browner. She said air and water pollution control efforts would be curtailed and work at hundreds of Superfund toxic waste sites would stop.
Republicans defended the reductions as part of a broader campaign to reduce the federal deficit.
``It sets priorities in very tough times,'' said Sen. Christopher Bond, R-Mo., the bill's floor leader. ``We've done as good a job as possible within the dollars available.''
Democrats said the priorities were wrong and many of the cuts would finance tax reductions for the wealthy.
The $5 billion cut for housing, to $20.4 billion, would be 20 percent below current spending and 16 percent less than Clinton had requested. Public housing construction funds would be reduced $1.6 billion.
An attempt to restore $360 million to help the homeless was rejected, 52-48, despite pleas that the 32 percent cut in the homeless assistance program would hurt ``those that are most in need.'' The House has made even deeper cuts of $440 million in the fund for the homeless.
``The homeless are at the very bottom of the scale. They're out there in the streets,'' said Sen. Paul Sarbanes, D-Md., pleading unsuccessfully to restore funds to at least current levels.
Housing advocates won one victory as senators agreed to restore language allowing the Department of Housing and Urban Development to continue enforcing laws against ``redlining'' - discrimination by neighborhoods - by insurance companies and banks. Supporters of the original bill had said such enforcement should be left to the states.
The bill would cut veterans' programs by $395 million from current levels, nearly half of which is fixed spending that Congress cannot change. The administration had proposed an $875 million increase.
The senators voted to eliminate money to build two new veterans' hospitals as well as most renovation funds for hospitals.
Veterans' health benefits would be increased slightly but kept at $700 million less than the administration had sought. ``As a veteran, I find this to be an obscenity,'' said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., a decorated Vietnam War veteran.
``This is about priorities, about what we stand for,'' Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., declared after the vote. ``We turned our backs on the veterans of this country, we turned our backs on the lowest of the low, the homeless people. We didn't have to do it.''
Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., said she expected Clinton to veto the legislation once a final version is crafted by a conference of House and Senate members.
``This bill eminently deserves the veto it is going to get,'' said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.
by CNB