Budget Accord Nears; Meeting Set With Bush

White House and congressional budget negotiators reached a tentative agreement Thursday night on a framework for the fiscal 1990 budget that sidesteps political pain for members of both parties.

Bargainers worked until after 11 p.m., alternatively thrashing out the details behind closed doors in a Capitol office and shopping around parts of the tentative deal to their colleagues.

Sources said the participants had reached a consensus but did not completely rule out a last-minute snag before presenting it to President Bush at a White House meeting set for this morning.

House Majority Leader Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.), told reporters as Thursday’s session ended that the negotiators would reconvene shortly before the session with Bush. “I’m fairly optimistic we’ll have something,” he said.

“It’s likely there will be agreement sometime prior to” the White House meeting, said Rep. Bill Frenzel of Minnesota, ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee.

The month-long talks have been aimed at reaching agreement on a plan that would slice the deficit for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 to $100 billion, as required by the Gramm-Rudman balanced budget law.

Because the Bush Administration and congressional leaders have agreed to use optimistic economic projections, they have said they can hit the target by agreeing to $28 billion worth of savings.

The fiscal 1989 deficit is expected to exceed $170 billion, and many economists and others believe that the budget negotiators would have to find billions of dollars more in savings if they used more realistic assumptions. The optimistic projections negate the need for even tougher savings decisions.

Negotiators have been discussing splitting the savings evenly between spending reductions and new revenues.

Rep. Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.), chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, confirmed Thursday that the bargainers had agreed to pick up $5.3 billion in additional taxes, most of which would come from selling federal assets and raising fees the government charges for certain services.

Negotiators have also discussed claiming up to $2 billion in savings by moving the U.S. Postal Service “off-budget.”