Senator Stalls Budget Amendment Congressional Accountability Act Passes House Unanimously

In a prelude to the coming battle, a lone Democratic senator on Tuesday impeded Republican efforts to pass a balanced-budget constitutional amendment, calling the measure “a hoax” on the American people.

In contrast, the House unanimously approved the first bill of the 104th Congress, which now will go to President Clinton for his signature. The measure requires Congress to live by the same laws it requires other employers to follow, and Clinton’s signature is expected.

Meanwhile, Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., invoked an obscure Senate rule that forced the Judiciary Committee to suspend in midsession its work on the balanced-budget amendment.

Backers of the amendment said they would try again today. And even longtime opponents concede that Republicans in both houses likely will command the two-thirds support needed to send the measure - a key component of the GOP’s “Contract With America” - to the states for ratification.

But Byrd, 77 and an unsurpassed master at using the Senate’s arcane rules to his advantage, vowed to keep up the fight.

“I may be run over by the streamroller, but I don’t propose to get out of its way or just jump upon it and ride along with it.”

The struggle differed markedly from the overwhelming bipartisan support behind the Congressional Accountability Act, which passed the House, 390-0, on Tuesday. When the Senate passed the measure, 98-1, last week, Byrd cast the lone vote in opposition.

The balanced-budget amendment is the linchpin of GOP efforts to shrink government and cut spending. Public opinion polls show strong support for the concept after a quarter-century of unrelieved red ink. Republicans are hoping that once enacted, the amendment will provide the discipline needed to force lawmakers to make the politically difficult cuts.

“Our children and grandchildren are being shackled with an insurmountable burden” of debt, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said as he convened the abortive session.

Many Democrats are likely to wind up supporting the measure. But in the political maneuvering under way, the White House and Democratic leaders in Congress are demanding that Republicans specify the cuts they envision to wipe out the deficit. Their hope is that the voters will recoil when they contemplate reductions in programs such as Medicare, education, the environment and health.

“Not discussing the options with the American people is like a suitor telling his prospective bride, ‘Marry me and I will make you happy,”’ Byrd said.

“But when she asks what he has in mind, he simply answers, ‘Trust me, baby - you don’t need to know the details.’

“Why go through all these motions, why go to all that extent to fool the American people and to perpetrate on the American people a hoax?” he asked.

To stall the Judiciary Committee’s work, Byrd invoked a rarely used Senate rule that denies committees the right to meet after the full Senate has been in session for two hours.

“Frankly, Sen. Byrd’s the only one who understands the rules,” Hatch said after adjourning his committee meeting.