Clinton Softens Veto Talk, Seeks a Deal : Legislation: President says he’ll drop threat to kill spending cut bill if GOP restores some money. But compromise with senators proves elusive.

President Clinton has softened his hard line against a bill that would trim funds already allocated to a variety of domestic programs, offering to drop his veto threat if Republicans add back some of the spending he wants.

But Republicans seemed to rebuff the overture as the Senate debated the bill Wednesday and prepared to give it final approval today.

“We can’t work it out,” Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) said Wednesday after last-minute talks between GOP leaders and the White House failed to produce a compromise on the bill, which would also provide billions in disaster assistance for California and Oklahoma City and make $16.4 billion in cuts from other programs in the current fiscal year.

Some Senate Republicans held out hope that a veto fight could be avoided. Majority Whip Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said the Senate may not send the bill to the White House immediately, but may wait and see if further talks can produce a compromise that could be passed in June after Congress returns from a one-week recess.

But other Republicans seem determined to force Clinton to follow through on his threat and take the political heat for delaying emergency relief funds.

“We’re going to go ahead and send this bill to him without any more changes,” said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bob Livingston (R-La.) “It’s a good bill and we think he should sign it.”

Clinton had threatened a veto if Congress did not add back $1.4 billion for some of his favored social programs. In talks with GOP leaders Tuesday night and Wednesday, Clinton cut his demand in half, according to GOP sources.

It was the latest twist in the troubled journey of the first big spending-cut bill to come before the Republican-controlled Congress. Most of the $16.4 billion in savings would go toward deficit-reduction, but $6.7 billion would be used to offset the cost of disaster relief for California and other states.

After the final version of the bill was drafted by House and Senate negotiators, Clinton threatened to veto the measure, saying it cut too much from education and other social programs and too little from wasteful pork-barrel projects.

Many Democrats, eager to see Clinton take a more confrontational stand against the GOP, applauded the veto threat. Clinton has never used the veto during his two years in office.

Daring Clinton to follow through on his threat, the House passed the bill last week without change and sent it to the Senate for final approval.

Clinton seemed to back away from the confrontation Tuesday night when he discussed a possible compromise during telephone talks with House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and other GOP leaders.

According to Republican lawmakers and aides from both parties, Clinton suggested that he would sign the bill if Republicans added back only $700 million to social programs. Republican leaders did not dismiss the offer out of hand, but they warned that such changes would surely cost GOP votes and that Clinton would have to deliver Democratic votes to make up the difference.

White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry refused to discuss details of the talks, but he said efforts to resolve the matter before Congress leaves Friday for a weeklong Memorial Day recess seemed to have collapsed.

“I don’t think that’s going to go anywhere,” he said.

Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), a member of the Appropriations Committee and of the GOP leadership, said the talks might form the basis of a compromise when Congress returns to work in June.

“If he really is going to veto it, he’ll veto it,” Cochran said. “Then we will come back from recess and look at his concerns.”

But Lott, who had encouraged the White House and GOP leaders to pursue a compromise, said he continued to hope a veto confrontation could be avoided.

Lott said Senate GOP leaders would hold the bill until it became clear that compromise talks were completely hopeless. If some agreement could be reached, the bill could be scrapped and a new one drafted after Congress returns from its recess.

“If your goal is to score political points, that’s one thing,” Lott said. “But the whole thing has spun out of control.”

Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) also held out hope that a deal could be struck. “It is not too late,” Daschle said as the Senate debated the measure Wednesday night, adding that “there is still time to accommodate” Democrats’ concerns.