GOP Stopgap Bills Formed While Budget Is Hashed Out

Republican leaders in Congress, moving to avert a fiscal crisis while they finish their far-reaching budget for 1996, Tuesday began drafting stopgap legislation to keep the government solvent and operating through mid-December.

But even as they did so, GOP leaders were considering amendments that would ensnare the legislation in conflicts between Congress and the White House--and could open deep rifts between Republicans in the House and in the Senate.

On one front, the House Ways and Means Committee approved a bill Tuesday to extend until Dec. 15 the government’s authority to borrow, which is expected to run out by mid-November. But the committee included new restrictions on the Treasury Department, designed to limit the Clinton Administration’s maneuvering room in future budget talks. Those restrictions could provoke a presidential veto.

House Republican leaders also may link the borrowing extension to a plan to abolish the Commerce Department. The move would be a bid for the votes of House GOP freshmen and other conservatives who are reluctant to raise the debt ceiling without some budget concessions from Clinton.

House Republican leaders on Tuesday also unveiled their proposal for another urgently needed budget measure: a stopgap funding bill to keep government operating funds flowing until Dec. 1. They included, as another “sweetener” for conservatives, an amendment to limit lobbying by nonprofit organizations that receive federal funds.

However, those riders are opposed by many Republicans in the Senate, as well as some in the House, who prefer to pass those fiscal measures without controversial amendments. They also put Congress on a collision course with the White House.

The fiscal maneuvering in the capital is growing more intense because the federal government is heading toward a double-barreled deadline. The government is expected to bump up against the current $4.9-trillion limit on federal debt around Nov. 15. And Nov. 13 marks the expiration date for a temporary appropriation measure that has been keeping the government financed since the fiscal year began Oct. 1.

Times staff writers Elizabeth Shogren and Jonathan Peterson also contributed to this story.