
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, June 17, 1994                    TAG: 9406170035 
SECTION: FRONT                     PAGE: A18    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: Medium 
DATELINE: 940617                                 LENGTH:

DISCHARGE DYNAMITE: A TO Z STEAMROLLER

{LEAD} A to Z, the name given to the spending-reduction proposal being pushed by Reps. Rob Andrews, D-N.J., and Bill Zeliff, R-N.H., is steamrolling the frantic opposition of the House Democratic leadership. As of Thursday, the discharge petition to force a vote on the bill on the House floor had garnered 203 signatures, just 15 short of success.

A to Z, it will be recalled, would set aside a special 10-day session of Congress to do something that has never been done before: undertake a top-to-bottom review of federal spending programs by the entire Congress, instead of by committees alone. Members could propose amendments to slash spending in specific programs and force recorded votes. Members would have to stand up and support, say, the mohair subsidy.

{REST} None of Virginia's Democratic House members has signed on, including such self-advertised moderates as Reps. Owen Pickett and Norman Sisisky. Rep. Lewis Payne expressed support when the idea first came up, but was slapped back into line by the Democratic leadership. Virginia Republicans Thomas Bliley, Bob Goodlatte and Frank Wolf have signed the discharge petition. First District Republican Rep. Herb Bateman is a co-sponsor but is one of only nine House Republicans who has held back from signing the discharge petition.

Representative Bateman is worried defense could be further gutted by A to Z. The sponsors, however, are seeking to ensure that the defense budget, which has already been whacked to the bone and which President Clinton has pledged to cut no further, is spared any more bloodletting.

Election-year pressures are clearly taking their toll on many members' loyalty to the spending machine. The public, clearly worried that spending is out of control, is tired of excuses. A to Z is drastic medicine, but it is Congress itself that has allowed this fiscal streptococus to eat away at the public purse.

by CNB