Senate Approves $16 Billion in Spending Cuts

After months of debate, negotiations and temper-fraying delays, the Senate on Friday overwhelmingly approved and sent to President Clinton a massive spending cuts bill that also provides about $5 billion to California for disaster relief.

The President later said he would sign the measure, an earlier version of which he had vetoed.

In addition to helping California recover from the Northridge earthquake, the bill contains $290 million to help Oklahoma City rebuild after the April 19 bombing that killed 168 people as well as $275 million in debt relief for Jordan.

The bill cuts $16 billion from spending in the current fiscal year, the new Congress’ down payment in its controversial drive to balance the budget in seven years.

Despite the bill’s tortuous and at times uncertain route to final passage, the Senate in the end approved the measure by a vote of 90 to 7.

Passage was ensured after Republicans agreed to allow two final votes Friday morning on amendments offered by two Democrats who wanted to restore funding for programs that help the poor pay utility bills and provide job training. Both measures lost.

Meanwhile, a GOP-sought regulatory reform bill was on the critical list after the Senate on Thursday night defeated a third attempt by Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) to cut off debate. After that, Dole all but declared the measure dead, although he did not pull it from the floor.

The bill’s backers, including some Democrats, clung to the hope Friday that they could still persuade just two more Democratic senators to change their votes and support a motion to end debate, which requires 60 votes. Only 58 senators voted Thursday night to cut off debate.

The measure would markedly curtail the ability of the executive branch to issue rules and regulations on a wide range of health and safety matters.

Also on Thursday night, the Senate handily defeated a proposal by Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.) to end set-asides for minorities and women in federal contracting. Gramm offered his surprise amendment to an appropriations bill for the legislative branch, but it lost by a vote of 61 to 36.

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On the 1995 spending cuts bill, the final compromise was the result of weeks of negotiations between the White House and Republican congressional leaders. It passed the House last month but foundered in the Senate because of objections from two liberal Democrats, Sens. Paul Wellstone of Minnesota and Carol Moseley-Braun of Illinois.

Clinton sent the original version of the so-called rescission bill back to Congress--the first veto of his presidency--because, he said, it cut too much from educational, environmental and other social programs.

After those cuts were eased, the revised bill again sailed through the GOP-dominated House, even though a majority of House Democrats voted against it.

When the bill reached the Senate, Wellstone and Moseley-Braun demanded the restoration of $319 million for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program and $332 million for programs that provide job training for displaced workers and homeless veterans. After much wrangling, Dole finally agreed to allow votes on the two proposals.

Wellstone had a third objection to the final version of the bill but, to ensure passage, Clinton agreed to reprogram $5.5 million to restore funding for a program that provides counseling for the elderly on Medicare.

“The rescission bill that the Senate approved and that I will be pleased to sign, shows how we can work together to produce good legislation,” Clinton said in a statement.

The protracted controversy over the spending cuts bill, however, suggests trouble ahead for 1996 spending bills that would cut far deeper. One of those bills, which would cut $9 billion from the departments of Labor, Education and Health and Human Services, was in the drafting stage Friday in the House Appropriations Committee.

Some lawmakers warned that the measure had become so laden with controversial provisions on abortion and other matters that it might have trouble passing the full House.

“This bill is beginning to resemble the Titanic,” said Rep. David R. Obey (R-Wis.).

A key question is whether the growing number of anti-abortion riders being added to the bill will drive moderate Republicans who support abortion rights to oppose the bill as a whole.

During debate, the committee for a second consecutive day handed a double-barreled victory to anti-abortion forces. It approved an amendment that would allow states to cut off Medicaid funding for abortions for poor women who are victims of rape or incest. The amendment overturns a Clinton Administration policy and court rulings requiring states to pay for Medicaid abortions in cases of rape or incest.

Rep. Ernest Istook Jr. (R-Okla.) said that the amendment, which was approved on a 29-23 vote, was a matter of states’ rights. “States should be able to decide whether and how they spend their own funds for abortion,” he said.

But James Wagoner, vice president of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, said that the action sends “the most vulnerable women in our society a heartless message of indifference to the violent circumstances under which they became pregnant.”

The committee also approved, on a 29-25 vote, an amendment that would allow medical schools to continue receiving federal funds even if they do not teach abortion procedures.

The amendment was designed to circumvent new guidelines, set by a private professional organization that accredits and sets standards for medical schools, requiring schools to provide abortion training for students of obstetrics and gynecology. Only accredited schools qualify for Medicare reimbursement and other federal aid.

Proponents of the amendment said that it was intended to protect the rights of schools and students who object to abortion. Opponents said it was an unwarranted intrusion that dictates to medical professionals what their standards for training should be.

Critics noted that the accrediting guidelines make exceptions for students and institutions who conscientiously oppose abortion.

Those amendments were adopted just one day after the committee voted to abolish the federal family planning program and to ban federal funding for research on human embryos.