ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 25, 1996 TAG: 9604250062
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
Congressional leaders and White House officials announced an agreement Wednesday on a huge bill financing dozens of federal agencies for the rest of the fiscal year, solving a months-long standoff that had become a political embarrassment for both parties.
Nearly seven months after fiscal 1996 began, the two sides resolved a handful of stubborn environmental disputes and prepared to push the $160 billion measure through Congress on Thursday.
``I believe the president will find it acceptable,'' White House chief of staff Leon Panetta told reporters after the two sides ended yet another day of closed-door bargaining.
``We believe we have agreement on remaining issues,'' said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Mark Hatfield, R-Ore.
About an hour later, presidential press secretary Mike McCurry told reporters Clinton would sign the legislation as soon as it reaches his desk.
``The administration is satisfied that the president's priorities have been addressed as well as they can be addressed,'' McCurry said.
The wide-ranging agreement is likely to alienate some conservatives unhappy that its spending cuts are not deep enough and some liberals upset that programs are slashed too steeply. But top House Republicans and Democrats predicted passage with support from both parties.
``I think what we have is a consensus that most members in the House, Republican and Democrat ... will ultimately vote for,'' said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bob Livingston, R-La.
The bargainers announced no details of their plan, saying they still had to discuss the package with President Clinton and congressional leaders.
One of the final major impediments was cleared when bargainers solved a dispute over logging in the Tongass national forest. According to participants from both parties who spoke on condition of anonymity, negotiators agreed to create a buyout program for timber-industry workers who might lose their jobs from reduced logging. The buyouts could cost $100 million and would be paid for by reducing other programs, the officials said.
Money for agencies covered by the bill was due to run out at midnight, because they have been financed all fiscal year by a series of temporary stopgap bills. To head off a third federal shutdown since autumn, the House voted 400-14 to keep programs running for 24 more hours, and the Senate, by voice vote, shipped it to Clinton for his expected signature.
The bill had been mired in hundreds of quarrels since the Oct. 1 start of fiscal 1996, which were whittled to about a half-dozen. These included Republican efforts to cut more timber in the Tongass forest than the administration wants, to restrict Environmental Protection Agency regulation of wetlands development and to limit listings of some newly endangered species.
As the two sides searched for a truce in their 1996 spending war, there was election-year budget maneuvering between Clinton and his GOP presidential rival, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole.
A day after publicly inviting Dole to revive their failed effort to balancing the budget by 2002, Clinton spoke with the Kansan for about five minutes at a White House ceremony for the signing of an anti-terrorism bill, Panetta said.
Dole said he would discuss the idea with House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., and get back to Clinton ``pretty soon,'' according to Panetta. But there were no indications the budget-balancing talks would actually resume.
``We had a nice exchange,'' was all Dole would say.
For Clinton, a deal with Republicans eliminating federal deficits would be a political coup that would erase the matter as an issue in his upcoming re-election campaign. Such a pact could reinforce Dole's reputation as a person who can make things happen - but it might also handcuff his ability to draw contrasts with the man he is trying to oust from the White House.
The months-long standoff over the 1996 spending bill has prompted Congress to approve more than a dozen bills temporarily financing some programs and providing others with money for the rest of the fiscal year. But the 24-hour measure Congress prepared Wednesday for Clinton would be the ninth time Congress and Clinton have temporarily kept agencies functioning since Oct. 1.
The overdue 1996 spending bill contains funds for some of the government's biggest agencies, including the departments of Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and seven other Cabinet-level departments, plus the Environmental Protection Agency.
In part, the fight over the measure was waged over administration efforts to boost funds for education, the environment and other programs over amounts Republicans preferred. In recent weeks, Republicans have agreed to provide more than half of the extra $8 billion Clinton wants for these initiatives - paid for with savings from other programs.
But the legislation also was home to many GOP-written provisions that would have limited or ended the government's ability to enforce some environmental and safety laws. Eventually, some of the provisions were dropped.
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