Copyright 1999 The Houston Chronicle Publishing Company
The Houston Chronicle
November 19, 1999, Friday 3 STAR EDITION
SECTION: A; Pg. 1
LENGTH:
1316 words
HEADLINE: $ 385 billion spending bill gets
final House approval
SOURCE: Staff
BYLINE: GREG McDONALD, Houston Chronicle Washington
Bureau
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
BODY:
WASHINGTON - The House gave its overwhelming
approval Thursday to a final $ 385 billion spending package for the 2000 fiscal
year, ending nearly seven weeks of contentious negotiations with President
Clinton.
But a dispute over dairy price controls, coal mine
waste dumping regulations and rural loan guarantees for satellite
television ventures threatened to hold up passage in the Senate.
Some
senators were so angry over not getting their loan, dairy and mining concerns
addressed in the final bill that they sought to block consideration of a
temporary spending measure that would keep government offices open until the
Senate holds its final vote on the budget and adjourns.
But after some
last-minute deal-making promising that their concerns would be addressed in
future legislation, the lawmakers dropped their objections and the Senate joined
the House in approving a seventh stopgap measure to keep the government
operating through Dec. 2 if necessary. The last temporary spending extension,
known as a continuing resolution, was to expire at midnight Thursday and another
extension was necessary to continue funding seven government departments. The
House also approved separate legislation that would extend several tax breaks
and also would permit disabled persons to take jobs without losing their federal
health benefits.
The budget deal cleared the way for the Senate to take
up the budget package containing the last five of the 13 annual government
appropriations measures and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said he
was hopeful a final vote would be held soon.
Still, Sen. Herb Kohl,
D-Wis., said he was prepared to filibuster the final bill unless federal dairy
price controls favoring eastern and southern producers are changed.
The
House vote earlier of 296-135 in favor of the package came after Clinton and
Republican leaders signed off on the final details of how to pay for increased
spending in some programs without tapping the Social Security Trust Fund.
Clinton, Democratic and Republican leaders all hailed the final bill as
a winner for the country and for their own political interests.
"This
budget is a victory, and a hard-won victory, for the American people," Clinton
told reporters in Turkey, where he was meeting with European leaders.
"The most important thing . . . is that we didn't dip into the Social
Security Trust Fund," said House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. "It changed the
way that this town does business and it probably will put an indelible mark on
how this country will see its fiscal and financial future."
Even House
Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., offered limited praise for the bill. He
had indicated only a few days ago that he might not support it. But he ended up
encouraging his Democratic colleagues to vote for it.
"This package has
a lot of good in it, it has a lot of bad in it. But on balance it has more to
recommend it than not," Gephardt said.
The House vote brought an end to
months of intense political wrangling over what to do with the first budget
surplus in 30 years.
In the end, Congress, with Clinton's blessing,
cobbled together a $ 1.8 trillion budget for fiscal 2000 that includes about $
610 billion in discretionary spending beyond the federally mandated allocations
for Social Security, welfare and other benefit programs. The discretionary
spending, including money Clinton wanted for hiring new teachers and police
officers, supporting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and paying U.S. dues
owed to the United Nations, came in at about $ 30 billion more than the spending
limits Congress and the president set in 1997 for the 2000 budget.
Most
of that $ 30 billion was added by Republicans before they even entered
negotiations with Clinton early last month, hoping to shut off further demands
from the president for additional money. But during the negotiations, they ended
up giving him nearly $ 6 billion in additional funding, although they forced him
to accept several creative ways of paying for it to avoid siphoning off the
money from Social Security funds.
One of the most controversial
cost-saving measures was an 0.38 percent across-the-board cut in federal
spending, which will save $ 1.3 billion. But in agreeing to the cut, which he
had vowed to fight only two weeks ago, Clinton won the right to implement it in
a way that is not expected to hurt important programs.
In addition,
Clinton also agreed with Republicans to delay a military pay increase scheduled
for Sept. 30 next year until Oct. 1, the start of the 2001 fiscal year. That
maneuver is expected to save $ 3.5 billion by moving the payout, which includes
a raise for military and some civil service personnel, into the next fiscal
year.
But the Republicans got a lot out of the negotiations as well,
including a controversial provision limiting the amount of money the
administration can give to international organizations that perform or promote
abortion.
Although mostly symbolic, the provision will limit the amount
of money available to those organizations to $ 15 million from a pool of about $
385 million dedicated to foreign family assistance programs.
The
Republicans also succeeded in winning more flexibility for the states in using
federal education money for teacher training and other needs.
But they
boasted primarily of fulfilling their pledge not to use Social Security
surpluses to fund government programs. However, in order to make that claim the
Republicans employed a number of accounting techniques in order not to count
about $ 17 billion that will be spent in 2000 as part of the budget.
Although the budget package drew strong bipartisan support in the House,
some members complained about the creative accounting they said was designed to
"cover up" the Social Security spending.
Other members who ended up
opposing it complained before the vote that they had simply not had time to read
through the final, 2,000-page bill, which wasn't written up and distributed to
members until mid-day Thursday.
"This budget contains who knows what,"
said Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Houston, who voted against it.
"No one
knows what is in it and what is out of it," she added, holding up a copy that
had some provisions blacked out and others handwritten into the margins.
Jackson Lee and Gene Green, both Democrats, were the only two
Houston-area House members to vote against it. Democrat Ken Bentsen joined Reps.
Bill Archer and Tom DeLay, both Republicans, in voting for it. Republican Kevin
Brady of The Woodlands did not vote.
The negotiations yielded a number
of bonuses for Texas and other border states, including $ 100 million for hiring
1000 new Border Patrol officers and a boost in spending on other
immigration-related programs.
How
Texans voted
How Texas representatives voted Thursday in a
296-135 roll call, by which the U.S. House passed a $ 390 billion budget bill
for fiscal year 2000.
A "yes" vote is a vote to pass the bill. X
denotes those not voting.
Republicans - Bill Archer, Houston, Y;
Dick Armey, Irving, Y; Joe Barton, Ennis, Y; Henry Bonilla, San Antonio, Y;
Kevin Brady, The Woodlands, X; Larry Combest, Lubbock, Y; Tom DeLay, Sugar Land,
Y; Kay Granger, Fort Worth, Y; Sam Johnson, Plano, N; Ron Paul, Surfside, N;
Pete Sessions, Dallas, Y; Lamar Smith, San Antonio, Y; Mac Thornberry,
Clarendon, Y.
Democrats - Ken Bentsen, Houston, Y; Lloyd
Doggett, Austin, N; Chet Edwards, Waco, N; Martin Frost, Dallas, Y; Charlie
Gonzalez, San Antonio, Y; Gene Green, Houston, N; Ralph M. Hall, Rockwall, N;
Ruben Hinojosa, Mercedes, Y; Sheila Jackson-Lee, Houston, N; Eddie Bernice
Johnson, Dallas, Y; Nick Lampson, Beaumont, Y; Solomon Ortiz, Corpus Christi, Y;
Silvestre Reyes, El Paso, N; Ciro Rodriguez, San Antonio, Y; Max Sandlin,
Marshall, Y; Charles Stenholm, Abiline, Y; Jim Turner, Crockett, Y.
LOAD-DATE: November 20, 1999
