ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, January 6, 1996 TAG: 9601100033
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
Feeling increased pressure from the budget stalemate, Congress passed legislation Friday immediately restoring the jobs and wages of hundreds of thousands of federal workers caught in the 21-day partial federal shutdown. The White House said President Clinton would sign it into law.
The break in the standoff came as Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., and House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., said the president might over the weekend unveil his own seven-year balanced budget using Congressional Budget Office calculations. That would meet a longtime GOP demand and be a pivotal moment in budget talks, which have moved slowly for weeks.
``I think they're serious,'' Dole told reporters of the administration's bargaining after he and Gingrich returned from an evening White House negotiating session with the president. Dole said the bargainers ``went over a number of little things, but they added up to billions of dollars.''
Congress approved three bills returning workers to their jobs and reopening shuttered programs to varying degrees. Dole said lawmakers might rush two of the measures to him so he could sign them in time for parks and other closed facilities to reopen on Saturday. But as of 10:30 p.m., none of the bills had arrived at the White House, a White House spokeswoman said.
The House then began a recess expected to last until Jan. 23, when Clinton plans to deliver his State of the Union address. Most senators left town, and the Senate had only a perfunctory session - with no recorded votes - scheduled for Monday.
In another development, House Republicans said that - in agreement with 47 conservative House Democrats - they were now seeking $168 billion in savings from Medicare over the next seven years, nearly $60 billion less than their last proposal. They did not say how this would affect the policy changes they plan for the health-insurance program for the elderly, which is the biggest source of savings in the GOP's budget-balancing plan.
The announcement signaled two conflicting messages. It showed that Republicans were moving toward Clinton, who has demanded that the GOP back off its plans for trimming planned Medicare spending. But it also underscored that the GOP was successfully building coalitions with conservative Democrats for deficit cutting that could pressure Clinton to seek a deal with Republicans.
On a voice vote, the Senate sent Clinton legislation that would return 280,000 civil servants to their jobs and reimburse them for lost salaries, plus pay 480,000 others who have had to work without wages since the record-length shutdown began Dec. 16. They would be paid through Jan. 26, when a third partial government closure in three months could occur if Republicans and Clinton cannot complete a deal by then.
Conceding that the shutdown had bumped the spotlight off their budget fight with Clinton, House Republicans joined Democrats earlier Friday in approving the bill, 401-17. All Virginia representatives voted for the legislation.
``In my view, we have a resolution now to a very thorny problem and one that unfairly punished a lot of good people,'' Dole said after the Senate approved the bill.
House passage represented a turnaround by Gingrich and other House GOP leaders. They had insisted for weeks that they would not reopen federal offices until they extracted a budget-balancing deal from the president. Dole had split with his House colleagues earlier and sought to end the shutdown.
The measure provided funds for about a dozen federal functions that were running out of money, but left many others without money. Included were funds to reopen national parks and museums, provide some veterans' benefits and for children's protection and meals for the elderly.
Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., supported the measure but said he wasn't happy about it.
``This isn't the way to run a government,'' he said. ``Now, we're picking and choosing. Now, we're picking winners and losers. Now, we're still leaving unfunded many major programs, including Head Start and cops on the street.''
On voice votes, the House and Senate approved a second bill that would reopen all of the programs run by the scores of department and agencies affected by the shutdown - if Clinton submits a balanced budget as scored by the Congressional Budget Office.
Until now, Clinton has resisted doing so, arguing that CBO's deficit projections are too pessimistic and would force unnecessarily deep spending cuts. But if Clinton submits such a budget - as Dole and Gingrich said he might - it would completely end the shutdown for three weeks plus perhaps spur the budget negotiations.
Gingrich told reporters that if Clinton came up with such a plan, ``We would then have the full government operating by Monday morning.''
In addition, Congress approved a third measure financing about 20 other programs for the rest of the fiscal year, which runs through Sept. 30. This measure grew steadily throughout the day as lawmakers sought protection for favorite programs.
LENGTH: Medium: 90 linesby CNB