President Urged to Veto Funds to Run Congress : Government: Reps. Cox, Dornan, Packard are among lawmakers trying to derail a $2.3-billion appropriation.

Contending that a bloated congressional staff has contributed to Capitol Hill gridlock, three Orange County congressmen on Thursday said President Bush should attack congressional pork by vetoing the 1993 legislative appropriations bill.

Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), who has led a campaign to derail the $2.3-billion funding package for Congress, was joined by Reps. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), Ron Packard (R-Oceanside) and half a dozen other lawmakers at a Capitol Hill press conference sponsored by Citizens for a Sound Economy.

Among the leaders of the conservative, Washington-based group are James C. Miller III, who served as director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Reagan Administration.

Cox has argued that Congress should reduce its expenditures by at least one-third, largely by trimming the staffs of the 300 congressional committees and subcommittees. Bush has also challenged Congress to slash its spending and has promised to do the same at the White House.

As Congress rushes toward expected adjournment next week, a presidential veto of the congressional funding bill almost certainly would spark a full-fledged feud that could lead to last-minute attempts in Congress to slash favored White House programs.

The congressional budget, Cox said, “is a great deal of money. . . . It is more than is necessary, but it also contributes to the dissolution of good government. It’s very destructive.”

The proliferation of congressional staff, Cox argued, has led members of Congress to improperly delegate responsibility to their employees and has given those staffers inordinate and undeserved power in crafting legislation.

Cox noted that the cost of running Congress has risen from $343 million in 1970 to $1.2 billion in 1980 to the $2.3 billion contemplated for fiscal 1993, which begins Oct. 1.

Congressional Democrats argue that the additional staff members--and the money to pay them--are needed because of the increasing complexity of the problems that Congress is called upon to address. In the last 30 years, they say, congressional responsibilities have grown exponentially, along with such programs and agencies as Medicare, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The House approved the 1993 congressional spending bill.