Congress Moves to Delay Budget Cuts; White House Vows Fight

Congress today took the first step to delay $85 billion in imminent spending cuts, while the White House said it would rather “negotiate into the night” than accept a delay.

Republicans were almost unanimous in opposition as the House Appropriations Committee approved, 32 to 20, a catchall bill that would keep government operations going for an additional 20 days--until Oct. 20--to provide more time for negotiators to reach an agreement on deficit reduction.

In an effort to discourage President Bush’s promised veto, the committee attached to the bill an additional $2.1 billion to finance U.S. participation in Operation Desert Shield in the Persian Gulf.

The committee sidestepped another foreign policy question, Bush’s proposal to forgive $6.7 billion of Egypt’s debt in appreciation of Cairo’s assistance in the gulf.

White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater repeated today that Bush would veto any legislation that would delay across-the-board spending reductions.

The cuts--called a sequester--will take place unless the targets of the Gramm-Rudman law are modified or delayed and will mean reductions of up to 40% throughout the government.

“We want to avoid a sequester. We are willing to negotiate into the night,” Fitzwater said.