ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, August 3, 1996 TAG: 9608050047
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: KNIGHT-RIDDER TRIBUNE
note: lede
Capping its most productive week in years, Congress gave final approval Friday to bills raising the minimum wage, making health insurance more secure for workers, and improving drinking water supplies around the nation.
President Clinton has said he will sign all three measures, along with the sweeping changes in the welfare system that cleared Congress on Thursday.
The impending fall political campaign triggered the rush to enact the long-stalled legislation, as lawmakers had expressed alarm about criticism that they were more interested in scoring political debating points than in achieving concrete goals.
``Some of our people, particularly the freshmen, were getting a little nervous,'' said Ohio Rep. John Boehner, chairman of the House Republican Conference.
And Senate Minority Leader Thomas Daschle, D-S.D., said ``people expected more of us'' than simply blocking what the Democrats considered ``bad legislation'' from Republicans.
The bills passed Friday with huge bipartisan majorities, but Republicans and Democrats couldn't resist clashing over who deserved the most credit for the legislation. They held press conferences throughout the day.
``With our Republican majority in the last 18 months, but particularly in the last two weeks, we've seen Congress go from gridlock to Olympic gold,'' crowed Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi.
But Democratic leaders insisted that many of the bills embodied key elements of their platform - and that nothing would have happened if the GOP had clung to its conservative agenda.
``It wasn't until we forced them to the middle on health care, the minimum wage and spending that we achieved any real accomplishments,'' said Sen. Wendell Ford, D-Ky.
Indeed, as Congress wrapped up a week of frenetic activity, it demonstrated anew its sensitivity in election years to voters' demands that it earn its keep. Said one Democratic leadership aide, ``People expect them to accomplish something for that one hundred and thirty-three thousand bucks they earn.''
Among the major legislative pieces were:
A radical reshaping of federal welfare programs. It removes the federal guarantee of monthly benefits for dependent children, shifts back to states the sole responsibility for welfare programs, provides federal block grants to the states, denies federal benefits to legal immigrants, and sharply cuts back on food stamps and aid to the disabled.
A health insurance bill that will enable insured workers to obtain new coverage if they lose or change jobs. It also would bar insurers from denying coverage indefinitely to people with pre-existing health conditions. The Senate gave final congressional approval to it Friday, 98-0.
A bill to raise the minimum wage to $5.15 an hour from $4.25. The first 50 cents of the increase will go into effect Oct. 1; the next 40 cents, Sept. 1, 1997.
The bill also provides a wide array of tax breaks for small businesses, including faster write-offs for new equipment purchases, tax-deferred $2,000 Individual Retirement Accounts for nonworking spouses, tax incentives for establishing employee pension funds, extension of the research and experimentation tax credit, and new authority for small businesses to join together to buy group health insurance for employees.
It was approved by the House, 354-72, and by the Senate, 76-22.
A rewrite of the Safe Drinking Water Act that refocuses cleanup efforts on the most dangerous contaminants, sets up a new $7.6billion revolving fund to help state and local authorities pay for water system improvements, and requires water companies to provide customers with annual reports on levels of contaminants in their tap water.
LENGTH: Medium: 73 linesby CNB