Bush, Congress Leaders Crank Up Budget Machinery

President Bush, telling congressional leaders that “we want to deliver,” Tuesday set in motion the Administration’s budget-drafting machinery while a heightened spirit of cooperation still exists between Congress and the White House.

Moving to get down to business on several fronts, Bush also met with U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar and announced that he will visit Canada on Feb. 10. The trip will be his first out of the country since becoming President, and would precede by two weeks his scheduled journey to Tokyo for the funeral of Emperor Hirohito.

Bush, who has failed to meet his campaign pledge to name his budget negotiators on “Day One” of his Administration, spent much of Tuesday morning in meetings with Democratic and Republican leaders of the House and Senate, proposing that they begin conferring each week on a spending plan with senior officials of his Administration.

The congressional leaders of both parties emerged from the nearly 2 1/2 hours of talks with an upbeat assessment of the effort to work out a new budget blueprint by the April 15 deadline set by the deficit reduction law.

‘Sweetness and Light’

“It was all sweetness and light,” said the House Republican whip, Rep. Dick Cheney of Wyoming. Acknowledging that differences on what to spend and what to trim inevitably will develop, he said: “The honeymoon’s still on--two more days, three more days. Enjoy it while it lasts.”

Today, Bush plans to meet with Treasury Secretary Nicholas F. Brady, Budget Director Richard G. Darman and White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu for his first venture into the details of the $1.15-trillion budget submitted Jan. 9 by former President Ronald Reagan.

Bush has said that he will present his proposed revisions to Congress within three weeks. Anticipation is mounting on how Bush will fulfill his pledge to create a “kinder, gentler” America while significantly trimming the current federal budget deficit and refraining from new taxes.

House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.) told reporters at the White House after the meeting that the congressional leaders promised to give Bush’s budget proposal “our immediate, urgent, full attention.

“And we will give it our sympathetic consideration. We will accommodate all that is possible to accommodate in good conscience,” he said, reflecting the tone of cooperation that generally greets a new Administration.

Air of Cooperation

In working with Bush on the issues that will be addressed in this session of Congress, congressional leaders have strived to effuse cooperation and optimism while avoiding any tacit endorsement of his likely approach.

In one sensitive area, said Wright, “we encouraged the President and those who are working with him in putting together the budget to give the maximum consideration to full funding in the war on drugs.”

Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) said that Congress does not expect Bush to submit a spending plan as detailed as Reagan’s but that it does want him to clearly spell out his priorities. “We were assured the proposal would fulfill that standard,” he said.

White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said that Bush told the group: “We want to deliver. We want a constructive relationship with the Congress that will produce results on the deficit.”

The meetings between the White House and Capitol Hill negotiators before Bush’s plan is submitted would be more extensive than sessions in past administrations.

“We would like to demonstrate, and I think the Congress would like to demonstrate, that it’s not business as usual in considering this budget,” Fitzwater said.

Bush met late Tuesday over dinner with the United Nations’ Perez de Cuellar to discuss withheld U.S. dues payments to the international organization and to get an update on U.N. peace-keeping efforts in the Third World.

Earlier, Bush spoke by telephone with French President Francois Mitterrand and Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez, thanking them for their messages of congratulations upon his assuming the presidency.