Senate Panel Backs Budget Pact

An outline of the budget agreement between President Clinton and Congress whistled through the Senate Budget Committee on Monday.

In a three-hour session so amicable that one lawmaker compared it to a bouquet-tossing contest, the Senate panel approved a blueprint of the deal by a 17-4 vote. Just three days earlier, a similar measure sailed through the House Budget Committee by a bipartisan 31-7 margin. Both chambers plan to begin debating the package today.

Ten Republicans and seven Democrats voted for the measure. Only Sens. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, Rod Grams, R-Minn., Paul Sarbanes, D-Md., and Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., voted against it.

The deal, hammered out during weeks of negotiations, is aimed at balancing the budget by 2002 by cutting projected spending for Medicare and other programs.

It would also boost funds for education and the environment and trim taxes for millions of families, college students and investors.