Clinton Seeks Funding Shift in Deal to Sign Defense Bill : Budget: President had threatened to veto the appropriation. But a compromise could save domestic programs and fund Bosnia deployment.

With a deadline for action looming at midnight tonight, President Clinton is offering to sign a defense appropriation bill if congressional Republicans will shift several billion dollars to fund Administration domestic priorities that they have proposed to kill or cut back.

Such a deal would assure funding for the first phase of Clinton’s proposed U.S. troop deployment in Bosnia-Herzegovina, financing that Republicans have threatened to block if he does not accept their $243-billion defense bill.

And by helping to clear away more of the tardy appropriation bills, the deal could reduce the threat posed by the expiration of the law that provides temporary federal funding until Dec. 15. As more of the appropriation bills are signed into law, more federal agencies are assured of funding through Sept. 30, 1996, and the threat of a federal shutdown recedes.

Clinton has until midnight tonight to sign or veto the bill, or it automatically becomes law. Late Wednesday, officials said that talks were continuing.

Clinton, who is traveling in Britain, has indicated that he believes the defense bill is about $7 billion too high. And he has signaled that he wants funding restored on four big appropriation bills that fund a range of programs dear to his heart, including his national service program known as AmeriCorps, the Environmental Protection Agency, Goals 2000 and other education programs, technology development and Clinton’s program to supplement police departments with additional officers.

White House Chief of Staff Leon E. Panetta was said to have opened the negotiations on the defense appropriation bill this week by telling Republicans that the President believes domestic programs are underfunded by $22 billion and asking for a shift of about $8 billion. The Republicans countered at one point by offering a shift of $4 billion. One Republican source said late Wednesday that $6 billion is “a good number.”

Panetta was quoted as describing the talks as “serious.” And a GOP leadership aide said that at least some Republican officials consider the talks “constructive.”

At the same time, GOP aides voiced optimism that Clinton would sign the measure, in large part because vetoing it would risk a cutoff of funds for the Bosnia mission that he regards as essential. The Republican leadership has warned that if Clinton vetoes the measure they will send it back with language blocking him from spending any money on the peace-implementation mission without congressional approval.

Meanwhile, Sen. John B. Breaux (D-La.) said that an ideologically diverse group of Senate Democrats is trying to devise its own comprehensive budget bill in hopes that the Democrats in the House and the White House will later sign on to it as a vehicle for a compromise if the budget reconciliation bill is stalemated.

Breaux said that the notion has the support of a range of senators, from such liberals as Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, to moderates such as himself. Other Democratic senators involved in the effort include Harry Reid of Nevada; Bob Graham of Florida, Wendell H. Ford of Kentucky and Tom Daschle of South Dakota, the minority leader.

Such a budget would also be a means to counter GOP criticism that the White House and Democrats’ lack of a detailed alternative budget shows their lack of interest in a balanced spending plan.

Breaux said that the group intends to have the plan completed before Dec. 15.