Hastert Sides With Strict Spending Limits

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), moving to quell a rebellion in GOP ranks that has hogtied the House, announced Tuesday that his party will stick to strict spending limits that could force deep cuts in several domestic programs next year.

His move pleased disgruntled conservatives but set the stage for a long, hot summer of budget battles with President Clinton--and among Republicans themselves.

Hastert resisted pressure to raise the spending ceiling established by law two years ago, brushing aside complaints from moderate Republicans and others who fear that the budget limits will force politically damaging cuts in such popular programs as education, health and veterans’ benefits.

The speaker laid down the law on budget strategy after weeks of intraparty turmoil and infighting that had raised questions about the effectiveness of his fledgling, six-month-old speakership. In a long, carefully prepared speech at a party meeting, Hastert urged his balky rank-and-file to put aside their differences and fall in line behind their leaders--or risk losing control of the House in the 2000 election.

“Some days you have to give your leadership the benefit of the doubt and just follow,” Hastert said. “We do either hang together or hang separately.”

Hastert’s whip-cracking session, a departure from his generally low-key style, cleared the way for action--at least for now--on bills that had stalled before Congress’ Memorial Day recess.

But many crucial details remain to be worked out on how the GOP will stay within the spending ceiling. And members acknowledged that the strategy Hastert laid out likely will create significant problems later in the year--particularly for moderates who have little stomach for the deep cuts in social spending that will still be required unless there is an unexpected budget windfall.

At issue is how House Republicans--who hold a slender six-vote majority--will pass the 13 appropriation bills needed to keep the government operating after the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1. Although the federal budget is now running a surplus, spending is still being constrained by a spending ceiling set as part of the 1997 budget-balancing law.

By adhering to the spending cap, Republicans hope to cast themselves as guardians of Social Security. But that will require more than $8 billion in cuts in other programs--cuts so deep that members of the House Appropriations Committee warned that many bills would be too lean to pass the House.

The committee this spring took the risky step of crafting without major cuts some of the smaller, more routine spending bills--such as the one for agriculture--while shortchanging the larger, more controversial bills in hopes that more money would become available later this year. That plan would cut funding for labor, health and education from $89 billion this year to $78 billion in 2000. The bill funding veterans’ benefits and housing programs would be slashed from $72 billion to $66 billion. Defense, meanwhile, would jump from $251 billion to $270 billion.

Conservatives howled at the committee’s strategy, protesting that it was designed to increase political pressure to raise the spending ceiling. Two weeks ago, the conservatives stalled action on the agriculture bill when it came to the floor by offering dozens of amendments to cut spending.

Hastert’s bid to break the logjam paid off Tuesday night as the House passed, 246 to 183, a slimmed-down version of the agriculture spending bill.