House Halts Arguing, Passes Flood Aid Bill : Relief: Appeals by Clinton, governors and leadership end gridlock. Senate may add to $3-billion measure.

Berated by President Clinton for gridlock in the face of one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history, Democratic and Republican House members finally put aside partisan differences Tuesday and approved nearly $3 billion in emergency relief for the victims of the floods ravaging the Midwest.

The House voted, 400 to 27, to pass the relief bill and send it to the Senate, where lawmakers were already talking of raising the amount by at least another $1 billion.

Meeting with six Midwestern governors at the White House, Clinton disclosed that he plans to ask Congress to approve at least $1.1 billion in additional flood relief--and lawmakers said that they expect the request to be incorporated into the Senate’s version of the emergency measure.

“I’m confident we’ll get bigger numbers. I am sure that the total is going to be higher” than $3 billion, said Sen. Christopher S. Bond (R-Mo.), adding that he expects the measure to move quickly through the Senate and to the President’s desk by next week.

Despite overwhelming bipartisan support for flood relief, the House vote came after three days of arguments and name-calling in which Democrats and Republicans accused each other of cynically trying to manipulate the disaster for political ends.

Arguments over how to pay for the aid, combined with a bitter side dispute over a Democratic provision authorizing funding for a youth program seen as principally benefiting Los Angeles, had mired the bill in procedural wrangling since last week.

Republicans, joined by some conservative Democrats, had sought to make offsetting spending cuts in other programs but were rebuffed by a Democratic rule barring them from offering amendments to the bill.

They were doubly angered because, while the rule prevented them from offering a “pay-as-you-go” amendment, the relief measure itself contained an extraneous Democratic provision authorizing payment of a $100-per-week stipend to young people 17 to 30 in poor areas as part of a youth employment training program.

Sponsored by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), the provision contained technical language needed to free up previously approved funding under the Youth Fair Chance Program adopted in the wake of the Los Angeles riots.

Waters described it as a mere “technical” amendment that would benefit youths in poor areas across the nation, but Republicans called it a political payoff to members of the Congressional Black Caucus for supporting Clinton’s budget package and said that it was a “disgrace” to take advantage of the Midwestern floods to force its passage.

“This isn’t for rural America, this is for Los Angeles,” said Rep. Scott McInnis (R-Colo.).

Democrats, for their part, accused the Republicans of using the flood relief measure to score political points on deficit reduction.

“When you have unforeseen emergencies and circumstances that demand immediate action, you don’t stop everything and go through a budget process,” Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) said. “Not today, not when people are out of their houses. Not when people are unemployed. Not when people are working day and night putting up sandbags to save their lives.”

The political wrangling prompted the governors of six flood-damaged states to rush to Washington to plead for swift approval of the emergency aid--and contributed to Clinton’s complaint on Monday that Congress was still mired in “institutional delay and gridlock.”

The governors, who met with Clinton and key lawmakers before the vote, urged an end to the bickering.

Now is “not the time to be making the policy about how they’re going to handle disaster aid. They need to get it flowing. . . . It’s not a time for arguing,” said Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan, a Democrat.

“Sometimes Washington is pretty detached from what is happening out in the middle of America, and it’s important for them to realize this is a critical situation,” added Iowa Gov. Terry E. Branstad, a Republican.

Embarrassing comparisons were drawn to the speed with which aid for the victims of lesser calamities has been approved and, in the end, the lawmakers found themselves under so much pressure to act that they finally approved a rule governing debate that was nearly identical to the one they had rejected last week.

That 224-205 procedural vote cleared the way for debate on the emergency measure itself and, after trying and narrowly failing one more time to knock out the Waters amendment, most Republicans dropped their opposition and voted to approve the relief aid.