Deals Fly in Push for Fast-Track Trade Bill

President Clinton pulled out the stops Wednesday in a final drive to win votes for his controversial fast-track trade bill, offering concessions to Republicans on issues from school testing to census-taking.

With Cabinet members blanketing Capitol Hill, Clinton worked the telephones himself in an effort to win the 218 votes needed for passage when the trade measure goes to the House floor Friday.

The aggressive horse-trading between the White House and lawmakers, involving a bevy of issues unrelated to fast-track, is unusual even by Washington standards, and reflects Clinton’s sense of urgency about the bill.

At day’s end, both administration officials and congressional sponsors said that they still were unsure just how the vote will turn out. The Senate is expected to pass the bill easily.

“The bottom line is, neither side has 218 at this point,” Commerce Secretary Bill Daley told reporters at a White House briefing. “Everyone,” he said, is “working extremely hard.”

Defeat of the fast-track proposal would be a visible setback for the administration, sending an adverse signal to U.S. trading partners that some officials fear could have an impact on global financial markets.

The authority, granted to every president since Gerald R. Ford, would enable Clinton to begin broad trade talks with other nations. Congress would be able to approve or reject any new accords but could not rewrite them.

The deal the administration worked out Wednesday would give GOP lawmakers modest concessions on two key issues: school testing and the use of scientific sampling in compiling the 2000 census.

Republican leaders said that they are seeking concessions on a spate of other issues, from limiting the use of foreign aid money to finance abortions abroad to tightening enforcement of trade laws on farm imports.

But both sides cautioned that the White House-GOP arrangements are still in flux and have not been accepted by rank-and-file Republicans.

On the school testing issue, Clinton and Rep. William F. Goodling (R-Pa.), chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, announced a compromise early Wednesday but returned to the table in late evening to iron out problems.

Administration officials said that the two sides probably would announce specifics of the accord today, in time to include them in a pending bill to provide the Education Department with its annual appropriation.

Under the tentative agreement, the White House would delay the start of nationwide testing for fourth- and eighth-graders until the National Academy of Sciences completes a study to see if existing state or private examinations can be used.

Republicans objected to Clinton’s earlier insistence that the Education Department be given responsibility for developing new tests. The compromise calls for delaying any final decision until next autumn.

Details on the census sampling issue remained murky late Wednesday. But the administration’s concession appeared likely to be minor, involving postponing any final decision until 1999, a year before the next census.

Clinton has proposed letting the Census Bureau use sampling techniques rather than counting every resident in compiling the next census. But Republicans have objected, saying that the practice would favor heavily Democratic districts.

The compromise under consideration would permit authorities to use sampling techniques during a “rehearsal” census to be carried out next spring but would defer any permanent decision for at least another year.

Clinton also took steps to attract more Democratic votes for fast-track, pledging to seek an extra $1.2 billion next year for retraining workers who lose their jobs because of import competition or plants moving overseas.

The retraining measure is one of several modest initiatives that the administration hopes will ease criticism by organized labor that it is not doing enough to protect workers.

Both White House officials and Republican leaders said that they are not yet certain how many votes they will get for the fast-track bill and might not be until the vote is taken.

Republicans have warned that, although the party generally favors fast-track, GOP leaders could not guarantee strong support unless the administration could produce at least 70 Democratic votes.

Republicans are fearful that, without the political cover provided by such Democratic support, GOP candidates will be vulnerable to attacks by organized labor in next year’s congressional elections.

Unions and environmental groups have campaigned vigorously against the fast-track bill, contending that trade deals Washington has struck before have not contained enough protection for workers and the environment.

Democratic proponents of the bill have conceded that they cannot secure the 70 votes that Republicans are demanding, prompting Clinton to try to lure more GOP lawmakers to his side. Democratic sponsors said that they hope to provide 55 to 60 Democratic votes by Friday but were well short of that goal Wednesday.

House Republicans, meanwhile, insisted that they have no more than 110 GOP votes for the bill, with prospects of winning another 40 or so, provided the Democrats can muster something approaching the 55-vote target.

As a result, even by congressional standards, it was open season on deal-making on Capitol Hill, with lawmakers of both parties overwhelming their leaders with demands for concessions on favorite issues.

Florida lawmakers sought guarantees that the administration would enforce trade laws affecting imports of citrus fruits more vigorously than it has in the past.

Legislators from other agricultural states sought similar deals involving crops ranging from Durham wheat to winter vegetables.

Times staff writers Sam Fulwood III and Faye Fiore contributed to this story.