Washington briefs

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published October 28, 2000

Budget bill passes, but Clinton plans to veto

WASHINGTON -- Locked in a furious budget showdown just days from the election, President Clinton and Republicans battled over tax cuts, immigration and school aid Friday even as bargainers sought middle ground on their disputes.

"I'll stay here to Election Day, if I have to, to do right by the American people," Clinton said at the White House.

Republicans said it was Clinton and Democrats who were being intransigent. They spoke of a different approach by Gov. George W. Bush, the GOP presidential candidate, who has promised to change Washington's partisan atmosphere.

"Next year, thank goodness, we're going to have a different president," said Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss. "Hopefully we'll have a better atmosphere around here."

By 49-42, the Senate gave final congressional approval to a $39.9-billion measure financing the Commerce, Justice and State departments that Clinton has promised to veto, chiefly because it fails to liberalize immigration laws as much as he wants.

GOP leaders held off on a final Senate vote on a separate bill that would cut taxes for health care costs, small businesses and others by $240-billion over 10 years. That measure would also boost the minimum wage, eliminate $30-billion in planned Medicare cuts for health care providers, expand contribution limits for IRAs and 401(k) plans, create tax deductions for the costs of a relative's long-term health care and for health insurance and provide tax incentives to spur new investment in poor parts of the country. But it also faces a veto threat because Clinton says it shortchanges school construction and is overly generous to health-maintenance organizations.

"He may veto it, but the American people are going to know . . . who vetoed it," Lott said.

Congress planned rare weekend sessions for today and Sunday so lawmakers could approve daily, stopgap bills to keep federal agencies open while negotiations proceed.

At the White House, Clinton, without ceremony, signed spending bills for veterans, housing, energy and water programs.

Sensing an opportunity to win votes in the neck-and-neck elections for the presidency and Congress, both sides fired rhetorical volleys at each other.

Clinton said that instead of bargaining, the GOP leadership "closed its doors to compromise," producing unacceptable packages "for the benefit of the elements in the right wing" of their party.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., leveled a similar charge in a letter to Clinton.

"It's difficult to negotiate with House Democrats when their leader puts on warpaint and wields a spear to show his readiness for battle," Hastert wrote.

Hastert's reference was to House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., who went to a meeting with House Democrats this week dressed as a character from the movie Braveheart, which depicted 13th century Scottish warriors.

Amid the verbal battling, White House and congressional negotiators sought middle ground on a $350-billion measure financing the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education.

In daylong closed-door talks, the two sides were moving toward providing roughly $4.4-billion more for hiring teachers, upgrading schools and other Democratic priorities in the measure, participants said. There would also be an additional $600-million for programs Republicans want.

But disagreements remained over specifics, including a GOP effort to block the Clinton administration from imposing business-opposed rules aimed at reducing workplace injuries.

Republicans said they had less flexibility to bargain on the tax bill because it would be too difficult to get GOP support for changes.

"I don't think you can put Humpty Dumpty back together again," Hastert said.

The tax measure contains reductions aimed at encouraging investments in poor urban and rural communities, helping people with long-term care and health expenses and aiding people who use individual savings accounts and other pension plans. It would also boost the $5.15 hourly minimum wage by $1 by January 2002, a major priority for unions.

HEALTH BILLS: In a flurry of last-minute health care legislating, the Senate passed a $919.5-million package intended to better prepare the nation for a possible bioterrorist attack and pave the way for placing heart defibrillators in all federal buildings. But the action was overshadowed by President Clinton's vow to veto a separate Medicare bill. The $30-billion Medicare measure would boost payments to health care providers who say 1997 budget cuts went too far. The House passed the measure, 237-174. The Senate began debating the measure.

Everglades rescue edges closer

A $7.8-billion plan to restore the Florida Everglades and reverse a half-century of dredging and canal building edged closer to congressional approval Friday.

With adjournment nearing, House and Senate negotiators have agreed on a broad waterway construction bill that contains the first installment for the Everglades restoration.

Supporters of the legislation said they expected a final vote and approval in both the House and Senate early next week.

The legislation, somewhat different versions of which earlier had been approved by both chambers, ran into trouble because of Senate opposition to a string of what critics called pork-barrel water projects added by the House.

Those provisions were stripped from the legislation leading to an agreement on the overall bill.

MEDICAID PROPOSALS: More low-income Americans could qualify for Medicaid under proposed changes by the Health and Human Services Department. The proposal would give states more flexibility in determining eligibility, which could benefit tens of thousands of people, HHS officials said Friday. States determine eligibility based on how much income is left over after paying medical bills. In more than 40 percent of states, that income is significantly below the poverty level. People living in nursing care facilities can qualify at higher levels than those living on their own because payment to those institutions count as medical expenses in determining eligibility.

PERSIAN GULF WAR: About 30,000 Gulf War veterans are to be notified in the coming weeks that they probably came in contact with low levels of sarin nerve gas during the Persian Gulf War after being told in 1997 that they had escaped exposure. And 30,000 believed to have been exposed will get letters saying they probably weren't.

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