House Waives Budget Rules for $11 Billion : Grab-Bag Bill Covers Big Area; Senate Cuts, Presidential Veto Seen

The Democratic-controlled House voted today to waive its budget limits to allow action on a grab-bag package adding $11 billion for programs this year ranging from cash for crops to police for the Pope.

Budget rules requiring the House to stay within the fiscal 1987 budget were set aside in a procedural vote, 222 to 191, despite complaints from Republicans and a few Democrats that Congress must get serious about reducing the deficit.

“By any measure, this bill busts the budget,” said Rep. Buddy MacKay (D-Fla.).

House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.) promised that Congress would rein in the spending bill before final enactment.

“It will be in the budget limits by the time it is passed and sent to the President,” Wright told reporters, implying that cuts will have to be made by the Senate.

$2.2 Billion Above Limit

The fiscal 1987 supplemental appropriations bill, which Democratic leaders predicted would pass by tonight, would push total government spending authority for the current fiscal year at least $2.2 billion above the $1.093-trillion limit in the budget Congress approved last year.

And the anticipated deficit, already swelling $30 billion beyond the $144-billion limit of the Gramm-Rudman law for the year ending Sept. 30, would worsen by another $4 billion if the bill becomes law.

Before the vote to loosen the budget, Democratic leaders said they were confident of victory, even as outnumbered Republicans released a “Red Ink Alert” to their members. Many of the bill’s spending programs were popular on both sides of the aisle, despite word from the White House that President Reagan will be advised to veto it.

The biggest portion of new spending in the bill, $6.7 billion, would be for the Commodity Credit Corp. to cover additional crop subsidies. Lawmakers say that this is the most urgently needed portion of the package and that the CCC will run out of cash to pay farmers next month unless action is taken.

Long List of Priorities

The Democratic-drafted bill would give the Reagan Administration half the extra $2.5 billion it requested for the Pentagon. It would also spread new spending to a long list of domestic priorities, including:

--$457 million for federal pay increases, plus $9.3 million for legislative branch pay hikes including those already approved for members of Congress.

--$425 million for the homeless.

--$148 million for the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

--$130 million for housing programs.

--$80 million to hire more Internal Revenue Service agents.

--$50 million in military aid to the Philippines and a like amount in non-military assistance to the black-ruled nations surrounding South Africa.

Supplemental appropriations are designed to provide extra money when needs cannot wait for the new fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. For example, there is $5.7 million to pay for protection of Pope John Paul II during his U.S. visit in September, and $2 million for Congress’ investigation of the Iran- contra scandal.

The urgent nature of many other items, however, is not so clear, such as the hiring of a 12th assistant for Congress’ attending physician.