Feinstein, Pelosi Ask Clinton to Focus on State’s Economy

Two influential California lawmakers urged President Clinton on Thursday to focus his attention on reviving the state’s ailing economy, specifically in hard-hit Los Angeles.

In meetings at the White House and on Capitol Hill, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) told Clinton about the state’s urgent needs and emphasized the importance of Southern California in fueling a national economic recovery.

“What I did was essentially say, ‘Mr. President, California is still in trouble,’ ” Feinstein said, following her private, 15-minute meeting. “His eyes were open. They were bright. He listened and he understood because he has spent time in California.”

Feinstein said she reminded the President that 20,000 businesses failed in California last year, 800 manufacturing plants have closed recently and unemployment remains high, particularly in Southern California counties.

The face-to-face session was requested last week by Feinstein. While Clinton has held numerous conversations with other congressional leaders since his inauguration, the early afternoon meeting was considered significant because it is the only one-on-one meeting the President has held in the Oval Office with a senator other than Majority Leader George Mitchell (D-Maine), aides said.

White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers said Feinstein had “a good meeting” with the President, and the two discussed the need for defense conversion.

“The President genuinely understands that the California economy is recovering more slowly than the rest of the national economy,” Myers said. She added that it remains unclear how much flexibility is in the budget to accommodate California, but the Administration is working on it.

At a morning gathering between the President and House Democratic leaders, Pelosi stood up and called Clinton’s attention to a recent RAND Corp. study that found Los Angeles County lost aerospace jobs at nearly twice the national rate, according to three House Democratic sources who were present.

Pelosi declined to characterize the message she delivered to Clinton. She said she was pleased to have the opportunity to talk to the President, but preferred to respect the confidentiality of the meeting.

The RAND report showed that the aerospace industry suffered broadly throughout California, but the troubled Los Angeles sector made the picture far worse for the state. Los Angeles County is the nation’s largest defense industrial center.

“The very idea that Los Angeles could be a place that is slowing the recovery of California speaks to the issue of all cities,” Pelosi said. “Economic stimulus has to recognize the important role that cities play in job creation and economic growth.”

Feinstein, after huddling with the President, held a news conference in a crowded hallway outside her Senate office.

“It was really such a delight for me to talk to a President who really understood what was happening out in the community,” she said.

While she neither asked for nor received any assurances from the President that California would be treated differently than any other state, Feinstein said, she considered the meeting productive and worthwhile.

“What’s important is that I have an opportunity person-to-person to make the case,” Feinstein said. “I’m very grateful for it. My sense is it fell on very receptive ears.”

Feinstein said she touched on a laundry list of California needs that warrant the President’s prompt attention. These included the impact of immigration services, military base closures and defense cuts. She reminded Clinton that Californians pay $13 billion more in federal taxes annually than they get back in services.

She also raised the bid by the California congressional delegation to bring a new Defense Department finance center to Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino. Twenty cities nationwide are competing to become one of several sites for centers, each of which will spin off 4,000 to 7,000 new jobs.

Feinstein also handed Clinton an envelope containing a letter from seven Californians in Congress who sit on appropriations committees, her spokesman said. The letter asked Clinton to include $1.76 billion in immigration funds for California in his 1994 budget to be released next month.

The meeting ended abruptly, Feinstein said, when her beeper went off, indicating that she had 20 minutes to get to the Senate floor to vote against a Republican amendment to the family leave bill.

“We now have a new rule that we have to be on time (for Senate votes),” Feinstein said. “Unfortunately, I had to leave.”

Times staff writers David Lauter and Karen Tumulty contributed to this story.