House Backs Spending Bill in Defiance of Veto Threat

Despite this week’s high-level talk of budget bipartisanship, the House defied President Clinton on Wednesday and passed a spending bill that he promises to veto primarily because it would fail to pay overdue United Nations dues and would undercut his effort to put more police officers on the streets.

The bill, which finances the departments of Justice, Commerce and State, was approved, 215 to 213, one day after Clinton and congressional Republicans met at the White House and emerged expressing optimism about resolving the government budget impasse later this month.

But Wednesday’s vote provided a glimpse of the course Republicans and Clinton will be navigating as they try to end this tumultuous session of Congress: Just when it looks like smooth sailing to an agreement, there will be plenty of political squalls blowing through the Capitol. Still, the hopes for bipartisanship were fueled on another front Wednesday as Clinton signed into law another spending bill that showed compromise remains possible. The president had been threatening to veto the bill, which funds the departments of Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development and several independent agencies, until Republicans agreed to boost funding for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, environmental protection and other programs.

“The legislation is important not just for what it will achieve but for how it was achieved,” Clinton said as he signed the bill. “I am pleased that our administration and the Congress were able to work together successfully on this bill in a genuine spirit of bipartisan cooperation.”

That was the spirit Tuesday night, when GOP leaders and Clinton met to lay the groundwork for more detailed negotiations between Congress and administration officials that began Wednesday. The issue is pressing because Clinton has signed only six of the 13 appropriation bills needed to run the government in the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. The government now is running on a temporary budget that expires Oct. 29.

But the two sides continued to differ on how to proceed: Democrats and Clinton want the budget to be negotiated in its entirety, which would allow trade-offs among many different departments and programs. Republicans want to negotiate each of the pending spending bills, one by one. That’s why the House went ahead with Wednesday’s vote on a Commerce-Justice-State bill that they know Clinton dislikes.

The president is perturbed that the bill included only $325 million for one of his cornerstone initiatives--a multiyear program to put 100,000 more police on the nation’s streets. Clinton had requested $1.4 billion.

Clinton also objects that the bill would not pay dues that the United States owes to the United Nations, a long-standing dispute between the administration and conservative Republicans. The administration estimates that the United States owes about $1 billion in back dues--so much that the country is at risk of losing its right to vote in the U.N. General Assembly.

Democrats pointed to the dues issue as another example of what they called “neo-isolationism” by Republicans, who in recent votes have rejected a nuclear test ban treaty and cut Clinton’s foreign aid budget request.

Referring to the expected decision by one GOP presidential candidate to seek the nomination of the Reform Party, House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) said: “Even though [Patrick J.] Buchanan has left the Republican Party, Buchananism has remained.”

Republicans responded that their bill would make money available for U.N. dues--but only if Congress passes separate legislation specifically authorizing payment of the money. And that bill has been bogged down in an unrelated controversy over abortion policy.

Despite their complaints about the Justice, Commerce and State spending bill, Democrats acknowledged that Republicans had moved much closer to Clinton’s position. The final version restored funds that had been cut earlier by the House for Clinton’s national service program to foster volunteerism and for the Legal Services Corporation. The bill also would provide $4.5 billion for conducting the 2000 Census, the amount Clinton requested.

Republicans also have prepared an education funding bill that would provide $340 million more than Clinton requested. But he still objects on policy grounds. Clinton wants to continue his initiative to hire 100,000 more teachers nationwide. Republicans want to replace it with a grant that gives states more flexibility in spending the money.

On another budget front Wednesday, the Senate Finance Committee approved a bill to renew through 2000 a number of expiring tax breaks. It includes a credit for firms that increase their investment in research and development, a provision important to the high technology industry.