Clinton Lifts Roadblock to Stimulus Plan

President Clinton removed a major roadblock to swift Senate passage of his $16.3-billion economic stimulus package Monday by promising conservative Democrats that much of the money will not be spent until Congress approves legislation requiring massive spending cuts and tax increases.

In response to the President’s assurances, Sens. David L. Boren (D-Okla.), John B. Breaux (D-La.) and Richard H. Bryan (D-Nev.) dropped their attempts to amend the package. They had sought to delay expenditure of half the stimulus funds until a deficit-reduction package is enacted.

Reading parts of a letter from Clinton on the Senate floor, Boren said: “It makes sure we don’t eat the dessert without eating the spinach.”

Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.), floor manager of the stimulus bill, said that the agreement announced by Boren and Breaux may clear the way for the Senate to get the measure approved by tonight. The House already has adopted similar legislation. While Boren and his allies were pleased by the President’s promises, Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) questioned whether Clinton’s action would cut “one dime” from federal outlays and said: “It shouldn’t be reassuring to the American taxpayer.”

Dole said that Republicans are “almost unanimous” in their belief that the stimulus package should not be approved and he claimed that there are enough GOP votes to block its passage by staging a filibuster. It would require 60 votes to shut off debate on the bill and the Democrats now have only a 57-43 margin in the Senate.

In another setback for the White House, Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.) declared his opposition to the stimulus package, saying: “Its economic significance is, at best, marginal.” Clinton has argued that the emergency funds are needed to guard against another recessionary dip in the economy and create jobs this year.

Monday night, in a move that showed the package will not be easy to push through the Senate, Kerrey joined five other Democrats and the GOP minority in giving preliminary approval to a Republican provision cutting $104 million from the measure.

Seven Democratic senators missed the evening vote and the Democratic leadership used a procedural maneuver to schedule a second vote on the amendment for today in expectation of erasing the surprising action.

Byrd said earlier in the day that he appeared to have the votes to rebuff Republican attempts to scale back the package and to block a bid by Sen. Herbert Kohl (D-Wis.) to require $8 billion of the amount to be offset by spending cuts in future legislation.

Despite remaining obstacles, Democratic congressional leaders expressed confidence that they would be able to deliver the stimulus package to Clinton for his signature before Congress leaves this weekend on its Easter recess.

Senate and House negotiators scheduled a meeting today to start work on a compromise budget resolution that would create the framework for Clinton’s economic program by setting caps on spending by committees and require revenue-raising by tax-writing panels to achieve deficit-cutting targets.

Although there are some differences between the Senate and House versions of the five-year, $1.5-trillion budget plan, Democratic lawmakers said that they are confident agreement will be reached quickly.

The stimulus package easily passed the House on March 19 but ran into more resistance in the Senate, where leaders have less control over timing and content of legislation than their House counterparts.

Boren said that about 15 moderate Democrats were concerned that part of the funds would be spent, increasing the deficit, without final congressional approval of the spending cuts and tax increases designed to pay for them.

Those opponents moved toward a compromise with the White House, however, when it appeared that they lacked the votes to get their amendment through the Senate.

Clinton offered his reassurances in identical letters to Boren, Breaux and Bryan.

If Congress falls short of meeting deficit-reduction targets in the budget resolution, Clinton wrote, he will demand that House and Senate committees that failed to meet their goals take other steps to make up the difference.

“I will also ensure prudent expenditure of the funds in the supplemental appropriations bill now before Congress,” the President added.

“I believe that these expenditures should be primarily targeted at programs that create a substantial number of jobs per dollar expended, programs that are needed immediately, and programs that meet significant human needs, especially with regard to health, education and housing,” Clinton said.

“In part because of the criteria stated above, a substantial amount of the outlays from these obligations will not occur until after the expected enactment of budget reconciliation,” he added.