House Passes Bill to Block Bailouts Similar to Mexico’s : Policy: Move seen as a rebuke of the Administration over package implemented without congressional approval.

Five months after the Clinton Administration shored up the Mexican economy with an infusion of U.S. dollars, a bipartisan House majority expressed its opposition to the policy Wednesday by voting to cut off money to administer similar bailouts in the future.

The House voted 245 to 183 to approve an amendment by Rep. Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.) to prohibit the use of funds for the salaries of employees running the Exchange Stabilization Fund, the special fund being used to help Mexico. The amendment would not take effect until Oct. 1, so it would not alter the current aid program, according to Bill Goold, a Sanders aide.

Joining Sanders in voting for the amendment were 156 Republicans and 88 Democrats.

The amendment was attached to legislation approved on a vote of 216 to 211 late Wednesday that would appropriate funds for the Treasury Department, the U.S. Postal Service and other federal agencies in the coming fiscal year. The bill would also eliminate funds for the Council of Economic Advisers, which serves the White House.

Proponents of the Sanders amendment described it as a referendum on the Mexican bailout, and the debate was largely an opportunity for critics to vent their unhappiness with the Administration for arranging the bailout without congressional approval.

“We never had a chance to vote on the merits of this issue,” Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) said in support of the amendment.

The $20-billion Mexican aid package was put together in late January, when it became clear to the White House that Congress would not approve an Administration request for emergency funding for Mexico after devaluation of the peso. The Administration’s plan was built around the use of the 60-year-old Economic Stabilization Fund, which was created for emergency use in stabilizing the dollar and other currencies.

The fund is controlled by the Administration, which can draw on it without congressional approval. But the House measure would block future salaries for government employees administering the fund to prop up foreign currencies, unless the action received specific congressional approval. The amendment would not bar use of the fund to stabilize the dollar.

Representatives who opposed the amendment said they considered it wrong to use an appropriations bill to set major policy.

“This is not the place to debate it,” said Rep. Jim Ross Lightfoot (R-Iowa). “This amendment stops the exchange dead in its tracks.”

Although the measure enjoyed broad House support, major hurdles remain, including in the Senate. While some senators, led by Banking Housing and Urban Affairs Chairman Alfonse M. D’Amato (R-N.Y.), have expressed sharp opposition to the Mexico aid plan, Senate approval is not certain.

The Administration also signaled that it intends to continue to oppose the measure. Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin said in a written statement that “we will continue to press our very strong concerns on this issue in the weeks and months ahead.”

The United States has distributed $12.5 billion of the $20-billion fund. The government has until Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year, to complete the distribution--if Mexico requests the aid remaining in the package.