Democrats Giving Up on Jobs Bill--for Now : Senate: Locked in impasse with GOP, they agree to recess, after failing in efforts to reach a compromise.

Failing for the third time to break a Republican filibuster, Senate Democrats Monday night temporarily gave up trying to pass President Clinton’s $16.3-billion economic stimulus package and agreed to leave on a delayed Easter-Passover recess.

The Senate did agree, however, to stave off government default by increasing the federal debt limit by $225 billion to $4.37 trillion so the Treasury would not run out of cash and borrowing authority.

In the worst legislative setback for the new President, Senate Democrats reluctantly conceded they had no hope of cracking solid GOP ranks to get the House-approved emergency spending measure passed before the recess.

In effect, the Senate will return on April 20, almost exactly where it left off Monday with no agreement in sight on a compromise version and no retreat by the Senate’s 43 Republicans in their all-out opposition to Clinton’s package.

The Senate will hold only a pro-forma session on Wednesday before leaving on a two-week recess that some Democrats hope will enable them to rally public opinion behind the President. Republicans, however, said they anticipated no backlash against their decision to stall action on the spending bill.

Under the agreement reached by Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) and his GOP counterpart, Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.), each of them may offer an alternative to the President’s bill that would be guaranteed a vote on April 20.

Neither Dole nor Mitchell, however, gave any clue on the contents of the packages they might recommend.

Mitchell told reporters that Clinton will be taking his case for the stimulus package to the public during the two-week interval before the next cloture vote.

“He feels very strongly about this,” Mitchell said. “He will be making his views known.”

Mitchell said the President called him three times during the discussions about the fate of the bill, adding: “He’s disappointed because he wanted the Senate to pass this jobs program before the Easter recess.”

Dole predicted that Republicans would continue to stand firm against the bill in its present form when the Senate resumes consideration of the measure.

“They (Democrats) do not and will not have the votes to shut off debate,” Dole said. “They still have some options but they are in a weakened position.”

The Republicans contend that the stimulus plan includes so-called pork barrel spending and increases the budget deficit. They said earlier that they were holding out for a much smaller package that would include only the $4 billion already approved for unemployment benefits, some sort of immunization and summer jobs program that could be financed without adding to the deficit.

While denouncing the continued GOP opposition as “just a political power play,” the President indicated for the first time Monday afternoon that he did not anticipate victory in the two-week-old struggle.

“They (Republicans) may hit us a little on this,” Clinton told reporters on his way back to Washington after throwing the first pitch at an opening day baseball game in Baltimore. “We’re working hard on trying to get it worked out.”

Earlier the President had termed the stalemate “sad,” adding: “In a time when no new jobs are being created . . . it means that for political purposes they are willing to deny jobs to places like Baltimore, Dallas, Houston, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and Cleveland and Seattle.”

His comments came after the Senate voted, 49 to 29, to shut off debate on the bill, falling 11 votes short of the number required to stop the GOP-led delaying tactics and force a decision on the legislation.

One conservative Democrat--Sen. Richard C. Shelby of Alabama--again broke party ranks to vote with the Republicans, while 22 senators, apparently convinced that their votes would not change the outcome, were absent when the roll was called.

In addition to opposing the package itself, Republicans, showing remarkable party unity, complained that Clinton had shut them out of the legislative process. They said that they prefer to cut spending first and offset additional outlays with reductions in other programs rather than add to the deficit.

From the beginning Monday, the prospect for an agreement appeared slim, as leaders on both sides of the aisle reported little progress from a new round of talks.

After a closed-door meeting with his Democratic counterpart, Dole said: “There wasn’t much give on our part.”

Similarly, Budget Director Leon E. Panetta said that Democrats rejected GOP overtures as inadequate to provide the basis for a compromise.

And in his morning briefing, White House Communications Director George Stephanopoulos appeared to indicate that the White House was preparing itself for the setback when he told reporters:

“Simply because a minority of Republicans in the Senate choose to perpetuate gridlock and hold up action on the President’s jobs program is not a sign that he’s not succeeding overall.”

In a shift in their rhetoric, however, White House officials started talking compromise instead of rejecting outright any attempts to modify Clinton’s emergency proposal to create jobs.

In a related development, Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen, formerly Democratic senator from Texas and widely respected chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, met with Mitchell.

Aides said that Bentsen’s main interest was a House-passed $225-billion increase in the federal debt limit that had been tied up in the highly partisan standoff over Clinton’s stimulus package. The Treasury had warned that the government would run out of cash and borrowing authority by midnight tonight unless the present limit of $4.15 trillion were raised.

Earlier, Sen. Mark O. Hatfield (R-Ore.), GOP floor manager on the bill, said that Republicans were discussing a scaled-back package ranging from $7 billion to $9 billion which would require cuts in spending elsewhere to offset about half of that amount.

Both sides apparently were leaning toward approving a House-passed provision that would fund $4-billion worth of extended unemployment benefits to prevent a halt in payments to the jobless later this month.

But White House officials spurned an offer by Dole to pass the $4 billion for the unemployed, increase the debt limit and then depart on a delayed recess for Easter and Passover holidays.

As time dragged on, frustration mounted on both sides of the aisle. Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) said that the impasse had led him to cancel his first vacation with his wife in three years. Other senators canceled home-state meetings with constituents or fund-raising events to stay in Washington.

Leahy said that the personal sacrifice was worth making, however, because the jobless situation is serious enough to justify the President’s stand.

Republicans differed. “The President would be well-advised to tell the Senate leadership to tear up this bill and start over,” said Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.). “It has no chance of passing in its present form.”

While Republicans held firm, some Democrats openly expressed a desire to make changes in the President’s package that would end the two-week standoff.

Sen. John B. Breaux of Louisiana, a moderate Democrat and friend of Clinton’s, said after a Democratic caucus: “Most people (Democratic senators) want to cut a deal that will get us out of this.”

Times staff writers Karen Tumulty and James Risen contributed to this story.