Wyden, Gop Trade Jabs On Flood Relief Senate Committee Passes Bill Adding $8.4 Billion To Budget
A disaster-relief bill that includes hundreds of millions of dollars in Northwest flood assistance has been jeopardized by Republicans, Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden and other Democrats said Wednesday.
“All over my state we have got families that are hurting, families that have had deep and painful losses,” Wyden said at a Capitol news conference with Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D.
But Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., said it was a partisan ploy and that President Clinton ultimately would be to blame if the multibillion-dollar flood-relief package isn’t signed into law.
The Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday approved the bill, which would add some $8.4 billion to the fiscal 1997 budget, including $5.5 billion overall to help more than 20 states suffering from natural disasters.
Gorton, who serves with Murray on the committee, said he was confident the Senate would pass the measure with enough money to help all needy Northwesterners. He said the $3.5 billion included for the Federal Emergency Management Agency is $2 billion more than President Clinton requested.
“If the president wishes to use a government shutdown as a tool, then he will have to veto this bill. But it will be he who keeps people from getting more generous flood relief than the president had asked for,” Gorton said.
Oregon alone stands to receive $84 million for flood recovery, including highway repairs, levy repairs, dredging of flooded channels and restoration of fish hatcheries, Wyden said.
An estimated $230 million likely would be headed for Washington state, an aide to Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said.
Daschle said President Clinton would veto the relief bill if Republicans persist in adding language aimed at preventing another government shutdown.
The GOP amendment, which would cut federal spending to below previous-year levels, could lock in deep cuts in social programs and doom negotiations between the White House and Republicans on a balanced budget plan, Daschle said.
In addition to Wyden, Daschle was joined by Democratic Sens. John Glenn of Ohio, Tim Johnson of South Dakota, Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, and Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, both of California.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., was invited to the news conference but declined to attend. She was working to improve the bill, including an effort to provide additional assistance to fishermen hit by the closure of fishing seasons on the West Coast, spokesman Rex Carney said.
Wyden said some of the issues holding up the disaster package - such as the budget process and techniques used to take the census - are legitimate.
Senators did avoid one contentious point that was included in the House version of disaster relief. The Senate version does not call for a five-millionacre cut in the Conservation Reserve Program which House GOP leaders are pushing.
The conservation program offers farmers money to take fragile land out of production. Murray, Wyden and other senators from the Northwest and Midwest formally protested any change in the program early in the week, and Gorton said Wednesday he’d fight to remove the House proposal in conference committee when the differences in the two spending plans are reconciled.