Congress Gets Busy Passing Blame, Not Appropriations

Just days after returning to work, Congress is behind schedule in passing spending bills and Republicans and Democrats already are passing around blame in case there is another government shutdown.

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., accused Democrats on Thursday of stalling action on appropriations bills with an eye to creating an issue in the presidential election. “I have a sneaking suspicion there is a slow-rolling process already being planned,” he said.

“We’re about to have the government shut down again,” said House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo. “We need to do our work, we need to keep the government from shutting down.”

Congress must send the president 13 bills appropriating funds for federal programs before Oct. 1, when fiscal year 1997 begins.

So far, President Clinton has signed only one - a $54 billion bill to fund agriculture and nutrition programs. On Thursday, the Senate approved two of the smaller bills, $10 billion for military construction and $719 million for the District of Columbia. On Tuesday, it passed a measure funding the legislative branch at $2.17 billion.

But with time running out before the fiscal year begins and lawmakers eager to leave town to campaign, big-ticket bills for education, the environment, defense, foreign affairs and housing remain unresolved.

The House passed all 13 bills before Congress recessed in August, but the Senate trails behind.

Late Thursday the Senate passed an $84.7 billion bill to fund veterans, housing, space and other programs by a 95-2 vote. Since returning to work Tuesday, it had been wading through dozens of amendments to the bill.

The administration has voiced opposition to the House version of the bill passed earlier, in part because it would eliminate all funding for AmeriCorps, the president’s national service corporation. The Senate bill would provide $400 million for the program.

Lott, referring to the Democrats, said: “They may like the idea of a government shutdown, because last time Bill Clinton shut the government down, he blamed it on Congress.”

The confrontation between the GOP-controlled Congress and the White House over spending priorities and a balanced budget resulted in two partial government shutdowns last winter. Polls showed that most Americans felt the Republicans were more at fault in causing the crisis.

“We all know that the Republicans shut the government down last winter and we think they’ve been chastened by it,” said Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D.

Daschle denied any Democratic intent to sabotage the legislative process, and said Republicans were causing delays by introducing controversial legislation and refusing to allow Democratic input.

He referred to a House-passed bill barring federal recognition of gay marriages that Lott had sought to bring to the Senate floor this week. Action was postponed when Republicans objected to proposed amendments by Democrats that would ban workplace discrimination against homosexuals and would add violence against gays to federal “hate crime” laws.

Democrats will try to attach those amendments to spending bills if the GOP leadership does not allow them to be considered as part of the gay marriage measure, he said: “We won’t be denied the right to offer amendments. We’ll just have to find other vehicles to do it.”

Daschle also predicted that Republican plans to trim education programs “will be a very serious and contentious issue.”

Lott promised “serious measures” to counter any delaying tactics, suggesting late-night or weekend sessions to keep the appropriations bills on track. He insisted that Republicans are trying to send Clinton legislation he can sign - last year he vetoed several over controversial spending cuts or social initiatives - and that if Democrats seek another fiscal train wreck, “I’m serving notice right now, they’re not going to get away with that.”

Despite the rhetoric, the likelihood of another shutdown is small. What’s expected is that the Republican leadership will roll all those bills the Senate has not acted on, or the House and Senate have not agreed on, into one giant spending bill called a “continuing resolution.”

Nobody welcomes that outcome, but few would object as their attention turns to the November election.

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