House GOP Leaders, in Shift, Act on Shutdown

House Republican leaders, scrambling to salvage their drive for a long-term balanced budget, reversed field Thursday and proposed sending federal employees back to work until Jan. 26 and funding a handful of crucial federal programs for the rest of the year.

The proposal, in the form of two alternative plans, is expected to come before the House today. The plans were drafted after House GOP leaders met stiff resistance from their rank-and-file to an earlier version that would have sent federal employees back to work for far longer, until March 15.

The new GOP plans to ease the partial government shutdown marked a significant retreat from House Republicans’ past hard-line stand: opposing sending federal employees back to work until President Clinton and congressional Republicans reached an agreement in negotiations over a plan to balance the budget in seven years.

But with more and more Republicans becoming uncomfortable with that strategy--and frustrated that the shutdown was not bringing more concessions from Clinton at the bargaining table--House leaders abruptly changed course.

“We did not want the federal employees held hostage,” said House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.).

Under one new plan, furloughed federal employees would be sent back to work with pay through Jan. 26 and the government would provide funding for the rest of the year for such politically sensitive programs as veterans benefits, passport processing and national parks.

However, most programs affected by the federal shutdown, including those for diplomatic and housing programs, would remain without operating funds. Thus, even though these programs would be staffed, there would be no money to fund them.

The House leaders also drafted an alternative that responds to demands from their rank-and-file to step up pressure on Clinton to produce his own seven-year budget-balancing plan. Under that second, broader plan, all government agencies would be reopened and all workers would go back to work through Jan. 26--but only if Clinton meets their long-standing demand that he produce a plan to balance the budget in seven years based on economic calculations produced by the Congressional Budget Office.

“We listened to the members and this is what the members want to do,” said House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas).

White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said that Clinton would consider any proposal to return federal workers to their jobs but that he strongly prefers a plan that would reopen the entire government for business.

The new GOP strategy emerged on a day when Republican leaders canceled a planned negotiating session with administration officials so that they could consult with their GOP lawmakers about what their next step should be. Top-level talks are tentatively scheduled to resume today and to continue through the weekend.

The leadership’s initial proposal to return workers to their jobs through March 15 faced immediate objections from some GOP members, who feared that it would give too much advantage to Clinton, thereby dangerously weakening the Republican hand. Those complaints were aired in a heated closed-door meeting of the House Republican Conference, which met into the night.

“I am vehemently and steadfastly opposed to this . . . defeatist strategy, which is going to blur the differences between the parties,” said Rep. Frank Riggs, a freshman Republican from Ukiah, Calif. He said that he is “absolutely concerned” that the move would be read as a cave-in, “begging the question: What did you get in return?”

Rep. David M. McIntosh (R-Ind.) said that the leadership proposal did not win immediate support because of “lack of confidence in the president.”

In the face of that resistance, GOP leaders modified their plan to limit its duration and to put more pressure on Clinton to come up with a balanced-budget plan.

Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) said that he hopes House Republicans will pass the legislation today. The Senate has already passed a similar proposal.

The shift in strategy, Dole said, would help move public debate from the government shutdown to the GOP’s budget-balancing message. “Somewhere along the way, we’ve gotten off message,” Dole said.

House Republicans have been taking a public relations drubbing for their refusal to go along with a Senate-passed bill to end a 20-day partial shutdown of the government that has become more unpopular with the public each day. Their efforts to blame Clinton and congressional Democrats have not appeared to be effective.

“The hot potato is back to us,” said Rep. Mark Edward Souder (R-Ind.), a member of the freshman class. “We’re divided, but we feel we need to do something.”

“We’re being pounded right and left,” said an aide to a senior House Republican. “In a PR sense, it has not been successful at all.”

A senior Democratic aide attributed the shift in position to the public relations problems that the shutdown has caused for Republicans and Dole’s increased public effort to return workers to their jobs.

“The Dole thing has been just cutting [House Republicans’] throats,” the aide said. “Suddenly the only people who want the shutdown are the House Republicans.” And he said that several dozen House GOP members were already eager to send workers back to their jobs with no strings attached.

Top House Democrats still view the proposal as an inadequate halfway measure, and will try to pass legislation today that would return all federal employees to work while the budget debate continues, the aide said.

The Republican strategy shift comes at a time when many Republicans have become pessimistic about prospects for finding a deal that would balance the budget in seven years.

“It is becoming more obvious each day that the White House is not prepared to agree to a balanced budget,” said Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.).

Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) said: “There’s a recognition that the president doesn’t want to balance the budget, and we have to go on to the next plan.”

And after a meeting Thursday afternoon with White House Chief of Staff Leon E. Panetta and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.), House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. John R. Kasich (R-Ohio) sounded discouraged. He said that he saw “no visible signs of progress.”

Many White House and congressional Democrats, however, sounded more optimistic that a deal would be reached, if not this week, then next. “Clinton and Gingrich both want a deal, and that’s enough to take it a long way,” one top aide said.

Gingrich has even shown signs of compromise on the tax cut that Republicans have held so dear. According to one source familiar with the talks, Gingrich has said that he could persuade House Republicans to scale back their proposed $240-billion tax cut to $200 billion.

The Senate, where many Republicans had long felt the shutdown was a political loser for the GOP, on Tuesday approved a stopgap funding bill that would reopen the government until Jan. 12 while budget talks continue. The Senate also approved a more limited measure to ease the shutdown, which would send federal employees back to work without pay and provide funding for selected government programs.

The second, more limited bill is similar to the first bill the House is expected to vote on today. It would provide full funding for several specific programs, including veterans benefits, welfare, unemployment compensation, national parks, railroad retirement benefits and the Smithsonian Institution, Meals on Wheels for the elderly, child welfare programs, certain Indian programs.

Other programs in the Cabinet departments and agencies that are lacking their appropriations would remain without operating funds, which means that workers can return to their jobs but cannot spend additional federal money.

The Republicans sought to increase pressure on the White House from another direction Thursday by threatening to impeach Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin if he continues to borrow more money to run the government, over congressional objections.

After Rubin met with members of Congress on Capitol Hill, Rep. Gerald B.H. Solomon (R-N.Y.) chairman of the House Rules Committee, challenged the constitutionality of Rubin’s effort to juggle funds.

“Those of us who are concerned with the constitutionality of Secretary Rubin’s behavior will be watching him closely and will support impeachment proceedings should he continue to bypass the Constitution,” Solomon said.

Republicans have sought to prevent a further raising of the $4.9-trillion debt ceiling to force the administration to accept a balanced budget under their terms. But Rubin last year turned to federal employee retirement funds to allow a continuation of borrowing, and Thursday said he is considering similar means to forestall crisis when the debt ceiling is again approached in mid-February.