ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, September 29, 1996 TAG: 9609300066
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
NOTE: Lede
A weary House of Representatives approved a huge spending bill and tighter immigration laws Saturday night, handing victories to both Republicans and Democrats just five weeks before Election Day and moving Congress to the verge of adjournment.
By an overwhelming 370-37 roll call, the House shipped the 3,000-page package combining both measures to the Senate. That chamber seemed likely to vote final congressional approval on Monday and send it to President Clinton for his promised signature.
Reps. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, and L.F. Payne, D-Nelson County, voted in favor of the bill, while Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, did not vote.
The House vote was the chamber's last major business of 1996, and let members of the first GOP-controlled Congress in 40 years begin fleeing the Capitol for the campaign trail.
The bill, completed at sunrise after all-night bargaining by White House and congressional negotiators, bears political points for both sides. Final approval will allow Republicans to avoid a rerun of last year's federal shutdowns when the new fiscal year begins Tuesday. Clinton gets $6.5 billion extra he wanted for education and other domestic programs. Both sides get a tough new immigration law. Each side tried to grab credit for their agreement.
``It's what happens when you abandon extremism and start working together,'' Clinton told a campaign crowd in Providence, R.I., using one of his favorite nouns for Republicans. ``It's a victory for our values. It's a victory for our country.''
But House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., said the session-ending legislation cemented GOP priorities.
``In terms of the basic shape of domestic government, it is moving in the direction we want it,'' he said. The agreement will let Congress leave ``ahead of schedule, under budget, in a cooperative manner, and getting a lot of good things done for the American people,'' he said.
When the bill finally hit the House floor shortly before 9 p.m. - about 14 hours after it was completed in all-night negotiations - Republicans lauded it.
``We have a bill that's good for departments and agencies, good for taxpayers, and it's a good bill because it allows us to go home to our constituents,'' said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bob Livingston, R-La.
Democrats said they would support the bill, but couldn't resist contrasting it with earlier GOP versions that sought deeper cuts in many programs.
``Head Start will now add children rather than dropping them off the rolls as this Congress was asked to do a year ago,'' said Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin, the Appropriations Committee's ranking Democrat.
Clinton had sent GOP leaders a letter urging Congress to approve the legislation and pledged to sign it. He said the deal ``demonstrates fiscal responsibility and preserves those investment priorities important to the American people.''
The budget package contains $244 billion for the Pentagon and $145 billion for the departments of Health and Human Services, Interior and dozens of other agencies for fiscal 1997. Including funds for Medicaid and other benefit programs that are automatically paid, the measures contain about $600 billion - more than one-third of the entire federal budget.
The extra $6.5 billion Clinton won was for schools, opposing terrorism and drugs, and a host of other domestic programs. To finance it, lawmakers will use an auction of spots on the broadcast spectrum and a fund that insures financial institutions, plus $1 billion from the Pentagon's budget.
The immigration measure would forbid illegal immigrants from receiving Social Security and make it harder for them to receive drivers' licenses and other benefits. Limits were put on benefits available to legal immigrants, too, though not as many as Republicans had sought.
``We can feel good about what it will do to keep our borders secure,'' House Majority Leader Richard Armey, R-Texas, said.
The spending package was crammed with provisions won by various legislators. There was:
* A prohibition on people convicted of wife-beating or child abuse obtaining a firearm, sponsored by Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J.
* Money for a study of chemically ``tagging'' explosives so they can be traced. But in a victory for the National Rifle Association, black and smokeless powder used by many antique-gun fanciers - and the chief ingredients of most pipe bombs - would be excluded.
* Aid to overseas family planning organizations would increase by $29 million to $385 million.
The defense bill came in $9 billion higher than Clinton wanted.
LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. House Speaker Newt Gingrich (right) confers withby CNBSenate Majority Leader Trent Lott Saturday on Capitol Hill.
Meanwhile, Gingrich remains under investigation for ethics
violations. Story on A2. color.