White House Issues Threat of Shutdown

The White House today threatened to shut down the government Friday if House Democrats do not drop two major arms control provisions from an omnibus spending bill.

Budget Director James C. Miller III told Democratic leaders that President Reagan will not accept extension of a stopgap spending bill for 1987 beyond Friday, House Speaker Thomas P. (Tip) O’Neill Jr. told reporters.

Shortly after an irritated Reagan warned of a government shutdown, the House, on a 264-151 vote, passed and sent to the Senate an emergency spending bill extending until Friday the government’s emergency spending authority.

The current money bill, containing funds for all major government functions from defense to education to Social Security, expires tonight at midnight.

If Congress and the White House do not reach accord on a permanent money bill by Friday--including deletion of amendments imposing a nuclear test ban and requiring compliance with the SALT II arms limitation treaty--the government may be shut down, O’Neill said.

Reagan Shows Irritation

While stopping short of rejecting compromise, Reagan expressed irritation with Congress as he left the White House this morning for a political trip to North Carolina and Georgia.

“I think it is time that we have a budget and I think it is time that Congress does not tie to that budget things having to do with armament and national security that would tie my hands now on the eve of going to Iceland to debate and to negotiate with the Soviet Union,” Reagan told reporters.

“I think the message for the Congress should be that it is high time that we have a budget . . . that deals with the financial situation and does not try to bring in their view on international relations and national security.”

Offer to Delay Rejected

House Democrats have offered to defer action on some or all aspects of the arms control package until 1987 but Reagan indicated a compromise of that sort was unacceptable.

“What good would that do?” he asked. “The man I’m talking to across the table would know that all he has to do is wait and the Congress will help him do their work.”

O’Neill, asked if he understood that Reagan was threatening a shutdown if he did not get his way, responded, “That is correct. That is how we interpret what Mr. James Miller is saying.”

House Democrats offered their compromise earlier this week. All sides are under increasing pressure to resolve the situation before Reagan meets Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev in Iceland this weekend, when arms control will be a primary focus.

Positions Hardened

Lawmakers had previously reported progress in talks with the White House, but statements by Miller and Reagan today appear to indicate a hardening of their position.

White House spokesman Larry Speakes told reporters, “What would cause the government to be shut down is not presidential action but congressional inaction.”