Congress Ends Fiscal Siege, Passes Budget

Ending one of the most bitterly fought budget battles in the nation’s history, Congress on Thursday passed a far-reaching, $160-billion spending plan that represents a bittersweet achievement for Republicans who swept into power last year.

The bill’s central theme was the reversal of a decades-old trend of ever-increasing federal spending by cutting $23 billion from a wide swath of domestic programs--from subsidized housing for the poor to the National Endowment for the Arts.

But while the 1996 spending bill was supposed to provide the spark for the Republicans’ revolution of diminished government, it emerged instead as a monument to the scaled-back ambitions of the once-swaggering GOP.

The bill falls far short of the more audacious GOP goals of rolling back federal benefits, sending power back to the states, eliminating major programs wholesale and balancing the budget in a few short years.

And the legislation, which provides funds for dozens of federal departments and agencies whose budgets have been in dispute for seven months, includes some surprising triumphs for President Clinton, who just a year ago was scrambling to demonstrate his relevance as a Republican wrecking ball was swinging toward his legislative legacy.

“Republicans can claim credit for bringing the president several notches to the right for saving money, but the accomplishment is not nearly as revolutionary as they had hoped,” said John J. Pitney Jr., a political scientist at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, Calif. “Republicans were talking about eliminating Cabinet departments, a massive restructuring of the federal government--but that just hasn’t happened.

“They stormed the gates and found the gates were pretty solid,” Pitney said.

House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) conceded: “It is not all the things we wanted. But it is a remarkable step in the right direction.”

That mixed picture allowed both sides to claim victory Thursday when the House passed the omnibus spending bill by an overwhelming 399-25 margin. Only 20 Republicans and five Democrats voted against the bill.

The Senate followed suit with a vote of 88 to 11. The White House said Clinton, who called the bill a “real victory for progress over partisanship,” would sign the bill this morning.

Clinton’s GOP rival for the White House, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), also lauded the bill. “It demonstrates what a Republican Congress can do,” Dole said.

Rep. David R. Obey (D-Wis.) praised concessions made by Republicans to win Clinton’s support, including additional funding for education and the environment. “It is a far less savage, far more civilized approach,” he said.

The votes clear the way for Congress to begin work on the budget for fiscal 1997, which is less than six months away. Clinton on Thursday repeated his invitation to Republicans to resume last winter’s failed negotiations over balancing the budget. “We have an opportunity, we can’t let it slip from our grasp,” Clinton said.

Dole tried repeatedly to dodge reporters’ questions about the invitation and finally said: “We’re trying to put together a good solid budget. If the president wants to discuss it, we’ll be very happy to discuss it.”

Gingrich said Republicans would not meet with Clinton until he demonstrated a commitment to what Gingrich called “real reform.”

The omnibus appropriations bill provides $160 billion for nine Cabinet departments and other federal agencies that had not yet received their regular appropriations for the 1996 fiscal year, which began last Oct. 1. Those agencies have been operating by authority of short-term funding measures, and they were forced to shut down twice last winter when Clinton and congressional Republicans could not even agree on stopgap bills.

Passage of the bill marks the end of an extraordinary political and legislative journey that began last year when Republicans launched their two-front budget strategy. One front was a far-reaching bill to balance the budget in seven years by reining in spending for Medicare, welfare and other so-called “entitlements”--automatic benefit programs that are not controlled by annual appropriations.

That bill included the major elements of the GOP agenda--tax cuts, welfare reform, elimination of the Commerce Department and giving authority to run Medicaid to the states--but Clinton vetoed it. A subsequent effort to reach a compromise dragged on for weeks before collapsing in January.

That turned attention to the other front the GOP had opened: big spending cuts in appropriations bills, which provide the funds needed to keep most of the government operating. Of the 13 regular appropriations bills, four became mired in partisan deadlock.

Republicans packaged their versions of those four bills into one and began negotiating with the White House in earnest in March. But by then, the balance of power had shifted sharply in the White House’s favor. Republicans lost momentum when polls showed the public blamed them for the government shutdown. Democrats hammered relentlessly at the most unpopular parts of the GOP agenda, such as cuts in education and environmental protection.

The White House won significant concessions from the Republicans when negotiators agreed to add funding for Clinton’s signature domestic programs and dropped most environmental provisions that he opposed.

The bill’s compromises were particularly hard for House Republicans’ rambunctious freshman class to swallow. But even they realized it was time to move on.

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A Budget at Last

What the bill cleared by Congress and signed by President Clinton does:

* Provides $163 billion in spending authority for nine Cabinet departments and many other government agencies for the 1996 fiscal year, which ends in less than six months.

* Cuts $4 billion in previously approved spending for a broad range of programs.

* Eliminates the possibility of more partial government shutdowns this fiscal year.

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What this bill doesn’t do that congressional Republicans had tried to do in other legislation:

* Cut the growth of Medicare, Medicaid and other giant government benefit programs.

* Cut government welfare programs and turn administrative authority over to the states.

* Cut personal and business taxes.

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A COMPARISON TO LAST YEAR

How some key domestic programs fared in the bill, compared with last year’s spending levels:

In millions

*--*

1995 1996 Environmental Protection Agency $7,200 $6,500 Eduation for the disadvantaged (Title I) $7,200 $7,200 Head Start $3,500 $3,500 Low-income energy assistance $1,500 $1,000 Clinton’s police-on-the street initiative $1,300 $1,400 Americorps national service program $470 $400 Legal Services Corporation $415 $278 Goals 2000 education reform initiative $372 $350 Occupational Safety and Health Administration $311 $305 Summer jobs for youths $185 0 National Labor Relations Board $176 $170 National Endowment for the Arts $162 $99

*--*

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HOW CALIFORNIA HOUSE DELEGATION VOTED

A “yes” vote is a vote to adopt the bill. “X” denotes those not voting.

Republicans -- Baker, Y; Bilbray, Y; Bono, Y; Calvert, Y; Campbell, Y; Cox, Y; Cunningham, Y; Doolittle, Y; Dornan, N; Dreier, Y; Gallegly, Y; Herger, Y; Horn, Y; Hunter, N; Kim, Y; Lewis, Y; McKeon, Y; Moorhead, Y; Packard, Y; Pombo, Y; Radanovich, Y; Riggs, Y; Rohrabacher, Y; Royce, Y; Seastrand, Y; Thomas, Y.

Democrats -- Becerra, Y; Beilenson, Y; Berman, Y; Brown, Y; Condit, Y; Dellums, Y; Dixon, Y; Dooley, Y; Eshoo, Y; Farr, Y; Fazio, Y; Filner, Y; Harman, Y; Lantos, Y; Lofgren, Y; Martinez, Y; Matsui, Y; Millender-McDonald, Y; Miller, Y; Pelosi, Y; Roybal-Allard, Y; Stark, Y; Torres, Y; Waters, N; Waxman, Y; Woolsey, Y.

Sources: Times Washington Bureau, Associated Press