Threat of Budget Veto Puts Quake Funds in Limbo : Recovery: President Clinton’s plan to ax a $16.4-billion Republican spending cut bill could affect delivery of $4.9 billion in aid.

Additional federal assistance for last year’s Northridge earthquake has become bogged down in partisan wrangling over Republican budget cuts, prompting anxiety among quake victims still relying on the continued flow of dollars.

Although the January, 1994, quake occurred more than a year ago, federal disaster assistance is still heavily sought for a variety of projects ranging from ongoing repairs at Cal State Northridge and Los Angeles City Hall to the continued removal of debris from thousands of area curbs.

President Clinton’s threatened veto of a $16.4-billion Republican spending cut bill has put delivery of $4.9 billion in additional quake aid in limbo. In the bill, the Republicans combined aid for the Northridge quake, the Northern California floods, the Oklahoma City bombing and other disasters with controversial cuts to programs such as job training, education and housing.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency says it has enough quake funds to survive a short-term budget standoff, but officials note that the vagaries of Mother Nature could prompt unexpected expenses and break the budget at any time.

“For the short term, we’re OK,” FEMA spokesman Morrie Goodman said. “But because no one knows what’s around the corner, we need to get this supplemental passed.”

FEMA Director James Lee Witt underscored that point when he requested the supplemental 1995 funding earlier this year.

In an appearance before a House subcommittee in March, Witt told Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands) what would happen if the disaster aid did get bogged down in Congress:

“We will have to start shutting down the commitment that we have made on public assistance and mitigation to be able to meet the immediate needs of individuals [in new disasters] first.”

That is what area quake victims fear.

“A lot of people have been waiting and waiting and waiting,” said David Fleming, chairman of the board of Valley Presbyterian Hospital, which suffered about $9 million in damage and is still waiting for federal aid. “FEMA has been telling people to wait for the supplemental money. Any more delay would hurt us.”

White House aides insisted that Clinton would find a way to deliver the disaster aid, despite his disagreement with other aspects of the bill.

House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) acknowledged that the GOP may not have the votes to overturn the veto, but he suggested that lawmakers would be in no rush to rewrite the spending bill if Clinton does go ahead with his first-ever rejection of a congressional bill.

The House approved the spending cut bill Thursday night 235 to 189. It is headed to the Senate next week.

Lawmakers representing the areas hardest hit by the quake were not united on whom to blame for the standoff.

Rep. Howard P. (Buck) McKeon (R-Santa Clarita), who defends the GOP cuts as necessary to help balance the budget, sent a letter to Clinton urging him not to use the veto. An aide suggested that such a move by the President would be “insensitive to the needs of our community.”

But Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills) suggested that it was Gingrich who ought to revise the spending cuts to make them more palatable for Democrats. He objected to Republicans tying the disaster aid to the budget rescissions in the first place.

In quake-torn neighborhoods, there was concern that the political maneuvering might overshadow the lingering need.

“We’re watching this very closely,” said Sarah Meeker Jensen, associate director of capital programs at UCLA, which has requested $932 million from FEMA to completely rebuild its damaged hospital on another site.

UCLA is still preparing its paperwork and would probably not feel a delay in money until November, she said.

Although the bulk of the supplemental money is targeted for hospitals and other large public buildings, small businesses have also unmet need.

“A delay is going to significantly hurt people who are just hanging on by their fingertips,” said Lee Hintlian, an aide to Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson who handles emergency assistance.

In a sign of how the need for federal money remains, the City Council, at Bernson’s urging, recently requested that FEMA extend its earthquake debris removal program an additional six months, until Jan. 17, 1996, to accommodate the many residents and businesses just beginning their post-quake repairs.

At CSUN, which suffered $350 million in damage, officials have received about $130 million from FEMA. The campus has been functioning, but trailers are still used as makeshift classrooms and damage is still widely visible.

“The longer the delay, the more we will be operating with trailers,” university spokeswoman Carmen Ramos Chandler said. “It’s frustrating. It’s an inconvenience. We’d like to put all this behind us.”