House OKs Foreign Aid, Breaking Budget Logjam

The House passed a foreign aid bill Friday to replace the one President Clinton vetoed two weeks ago, paving the way for action on four remaining major spending measures that could enable lawmakers to go home next week.

The revised $15.3-billion bill, hammered out late this week by Republicans and White House officials, would provide $1.8 billion that Clinton is seeking for the Middle East peace process and would restore $799 million that Republicans cut earlier from his foreign aid requests.

Approval of the legislation is expected to spur intensive negotiations between the two sides on the four other money bills Clinton has vetoed--and passage of compromise measures as soon as next week. Republican leaders say they hope to end their work for the year by late Wednesday.

“I hope this marks the start of a bipartisan effort to ensure that America has not only the will and the resources to lead but also the wisdom to invest in peace,” Clinton said after the measure passed.

The administration had refused to negotiate on the four other measures until the foreign aid bill was settled out of fear that Republicans would hold it hostage until the end of the talks and then blame Democrats for “raiding” the Social Security trust fund to pay for foreign aid.

Republicans have made protection of the Social Security surplus--which has been used routinely for almost four decades to fund ordinary government operating expenses--the cornerstone of their negotiating strategy this fall.

Friday’s House vote was 316 to 100. The Senate is expected to approve the foreign aid measure handily early next week and administration officials said President Clinton will sign it promptly.

“Once we have done this, the other outstanding obstacles should come together fairly quickly,” Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, told reporters after passage of the foreign aid bill.

The four bills still to be renegotiated--all rejected by Clinton in the form Congress first passed them--contain money for the departments of Labor, Education, Health and Human Services, State, Justice, Commerce and Interior, as well as funds for the District of Columbia.

Still to be ironed out is a dispute between the White House and Republican leaders over an antiabortion provision that GOP lawmakers have tied to money that would pay back dues owed by the United States to the United Nations.

Clinton has refused to accept the provision, which would prohibit U.S. aid to international family planning groups that perform or actively promote abortions abroad.

Washington owes the United Nations $926 million in back dues. Unless it pays at least $111 million of this by Jan. 1, the United States could lose its vote in the U.N. General Assembly--and that would be a major embarrassment for the administration.

Congressional strategists said that although negotiators were making some progress in hammering out a compromise on the U.N. dues issue, they probably would not complete work on an agreement until just before Congress ends its work--a frequent outcome on such sensitive issues.

The budget negotiations between the White House and Republican leaders are expected to go into high gear over the weekend and continue into the first part of next week.

As soon as the money bills have been passed and signed into law, Congress will recess.

Meanwhile, the Senate began debate Friday on a bill to rewrite the nation’s bankruptcy laws under an agreement that will give Democrats a chance to bring up a proposal to increase the minimum wage.

The legislation would make it more difficult for debtors to choose bankruptcy proceedings that permit them to erase all their debts once they file for bankruptcy. Instead, they would have to file under procedures that require them to repay part of their arrears.

Businesses have complained for years that the more-liberal laws now on the books make it too easy for individuals to escape repayment of their debts.

Approval of the foreign aid bill capped two weeks of sporadic, often frustrating negotiations between the White House and congressional Republicans.

The $1.8 billion for the Middle East peace process is intended to help carry out the provisions of the Wye River peace accord, signed in October 1998, which calls for Israeli forces to withdraw from the West Bank and for Palestinians to move into selected areas.

Besides the Wye River money, the revised bill includes an additional $799 million for peace-keeping operations in Kosovo and 14 other U.S. aid programs, from the Peace Corps to money for the former Soviet Union. Republicans had cut these funds in the original foreign aid bill.

The add-ons would be paid for in part by making offsetting cuts in other parts of the federal budget, which the administration has promised to propose.

Ten of the 51 House members from California opposed the foreign aid bill--Republicans Brian P. Bilbray and Randy “Duke” Cunningham of San Diego, John T. Doolittle of Rocklin, Wally Herger of Marysville, Duncan Hunter of El Cajon, Richard W. Pombo of Tracy, Dana Rohrabacher of Huntington Beach and Ed Royce of Fullerton, and Democrats Gary A. Condit of Ceres and Pete Stark of Hayward. Rep. Matthew G. Martinez (D-Monterey Park) did not vote.