ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 5, 1996 TAG: 9601050064
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
NOTE: Below
HIS BILL WOULD reopen the government, but it would require Clinton to present a budget.
When House Republicans caucused Thursday night to try to break the federal budget impasse, Rep. Bob Goodlatte of Roanoke was in the thick of it.
Goodlatte earlier had offered party leaders his own proposal for ending the impasse, and it was "very much discussed" during the two-hour caucus, he said. And he predicted that a key part of it would be included in a proposal Republicans may rally behind today.
Goodlatte's proposal would reopen the government for three days, during which time President Clinton would be required to offer his own budget-balancing proposal. If the president didn't do so, the shutdown would resume.
House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia and other GOP hard-liners have opposed ending the shutdown until Clinton agrees to a deal.
Goodlatte said his proposal would help move budget negotiations along by encouraging Clinton to put his version of a seven-year balanced budget on the table for the first time. It would be easier for Congress to compromise its differences with Clinton if it could see what those differences were, he said.
There was "pretty strong consensus [at Thursday night's caucus] that something like that was required," Goodlatte said.
``Better than nothing'' was the reaction of Reps. L.F. Payne, D-Nelson County, and Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, to Goodlatte's plan.
"Any approach to getting the government up and running would be better than the status quo," Boucher said.
Boucher called for the House to pass a resolution - already passed by the Senate - that would reopen the government while budget talks continue. It is "outrageous," Boucher said, that government workers are being kept from their jobs while being assured they will be fully paid.
Payne agreed that government's work should continue, separate from balanced-budget talks.
"I think [Senate Majority Leader] Bob Dole got it right when he said enough is enough," Payne said. Dole has concluded that keeping the government closed as a way of pressuring Clinton into a deal isn't very constructive, Payne said.
Payne and others in the Conservative Democratic Coalition said Thursday they were filing what's known as a "discharge petition" with the House Clerk. Once the required 218 signatures of House members are obtained, the petition would force a floor vote on the conservative Democrats' own seven-year budget-balancing plan.
That plan doesn't contain tax cuts, which the Republicans have insisted must be in any budget agreement; but it also differs from proposals by Clinton, Payne said. The plan is the perfect vehicle for a bipartisan compromise and would pass if it gets to the floor, he said.
Although he wasn't enthusiastic about Goodlatte's proposal to get things moving again, calling it "more of the same," Payne agreed with Boucher that it was better than nothing. "We need to get government back to work because of the important work it needs to be doing," he said. "It's foolishness not to allow citizens to have the services they've paid for."
Specifically, Goodlatte's proposal calls on Congress to pass a resolution that would reopen the government for 72 hours, giving Clinton time to present his own plan to balance the budget in seven years using the same Congressional Budget Office economic projections used by Congress.
If Clinton refused to offer a budget, Goodlatte's plan would shut the government down again after 72 hours. But if Clinton complied, the budget office would have a day to certify that the president's budget really balances in seven years. If it does, the government would stay open another seven days while Congress worked to reconcile a budget it has passed with the one offered by Clinton.
Some members of Congress oppose reopening the government because they fear Clinton will walk away from the negotiating table. Goodlatte said his proposal for reopening the government would not allow that because it is for a specific time.
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Goodlatte. color.by CNB