At Last, A 1996 Spending Bill $160 Billion Budget Falls Short Of Republican Goals

Ending one of the most bitterly fought budget battles in U.S. history, Congress passed a far-reaching $160 billion spending plan Thursday that represents a major achievement for Republicans who swept to power nearly two years ago.

The bill’s central achievement is to reverse a decades-old trend of ever-increasing federal spending and to cut $23 billion from a wide swath of domestic programs, from subsidized housing for the poor to the National Endowment for the Arts.

But while the 1996 spending bill was supposed to provide the spark for the Republicans’ revolution of diminished government, it emerged instead as a monument to the scaled-back ambitions of the once-swaggering GOP.

The bill falls far short of the more audacious GOP goals of rolling back federal benefits, sending power back to the states, eliminating major programs wholesale and balancing the budget in a few short years.

And the legislation, which provides funds for dozens of federal departments and agencies whose budgets have been in dispute for seven months, includes some surprising triumphs for President Clinton, who was scrambling just a year ago to demonstrate his relevance as a Republican wrecking ball was swinging toward his legislative legacy.

“Republicans can claim credit for bringing the president several notches to the right for saving money, but the accomplishment is not nearly as revolutionary as they had hoped,” said John J. Pitney Jr., a political scientist at Claremont McKenna College in California. “Republicans were talking about eliminating Cabinet departments, a massive restructuring of the federal government - but that just hasn’t happened.

“They stormed the gates and found the gates were pretty solid,” Pitney said.

House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., conceded: “It is not all the things we wanted. But it is a remarkable step in the right direction.”

That mixed picture allowed both sides to claim victory Thursday when the House passed the omnibus spending bill by an overwhelming 399-25. Only 20 Republicans and 5 Democrats voted against the bill.

The Senate followed suit with a vote of 88-11. The White House said Clinton, who called the bill a “real victory for progress over partisanship,” would sign the bill this morning.

Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, who voted for the bill, said it would provide disaster relief to Idaho’s flood-ravaged areas, as well as money for the non-profit Birds of Prey Center in Boise. Also included in the bill is money for timber management sales programs, timber road construction and a moratorium on new listings under the Endangered Species Act, except in emergency cases.

Clinton’s GOP rival for the White House, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., also lauded the bill. “It demonstrates what a Republican Congress can do,” Dole said.

Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., praised concessions made by Republicans to win Clinton’s support, including additional funding for education and the environment. “It is a far less savage, far more civilized approach,” he said.

The omnibus appropriations bill provides $160 billion for nine Cabinet Departments and other federal agencies that had not yet received their regular appropriations for the 1996 fiscal year, which began last Oct. 1. Those agencies have been operating by authority of short-term funding measures, and they were forced to shut down twice last winter when Clinton and congressional Republicans could not agree even on stopgap bills.

Passage of the bill marks the end of an extraordinary political and legislative journey that began last year when Republicans launched their two-front budget strategy. One front was a far-reaching bill to balance the budget in seven years by reining in spending for Medicare, welfare and other so-called “entitlements” - automatic benefit programs that are not controlled by annual appropriations.

That bill included the major elements of the GOP agenda tax cuts, welfare reform, elimination of the Commerce Department and giving authority to run Medicaid to the states - but Clinton vetoed it. A subsequent effort to reach a compromise dragged on for weeks before collapsing in January.

That turned attention to the other front that the GOP had opened: big spending cuts in appropriations bills, which provide the funds needed to keep most of the government operating. Of the 13 regular appropriations bills, four became mired in partisan deadlock.

Republicans packaged their versions of those four bills into one and began negotiating with the White House in earnest in March. But by then, the balance of power had shifted sharply in the White House’s favor. Republicans lost momentum when polls showed the public blamed them for the government shutdown. Democrats hammered relentlessly at the most unpopular parts of their agenda, such as cuts in education and environmental protection.

The White House won significant concessions from the GOP when negotiators agreed to add funding for Clinton’s signature domestic programs and dropped most environmental provisions he opposed.

While Clinton managed to rescue funding for programs he holds dearest, many other domestic programs sustained deep cuts. For example, the Department of Housing and Urban Development was slashed by almost one quarter. The Legal Services Corp. budget was cut by one-third. Bilingual education spending will drop more than 13 percent.

The bill also fell short of heady promises to reshape the bureaucracy. It abolishes more than 200 programs, but most of them are small and noncontroversial. GOP hopes of wiping out higher-profile agencies such as the Commerce Department and the National Endowment for the Arts were largely dashed.

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This sidebar appeared with the story: SPENDING HIGHLIGHTS Key provisions of the budget compromise: Foreign affairs - An additional $192 million for international organizations and $134 million for international peacekeeping. Justice Department - Most of the money that President Clinton sought to put 100,000 more police officers on the streets. Education Department - Roughly 2.5 percent less than for fiscal 1995 but Goals 2000 program retained. Environmental Protection Agency - Receives $700 million less than last year but $817 million more than Congress previously had offered. Interior Department - Receives $6.04 billion, about $500 million less than last year. Slightly more money to operate the national park system, a total of just more than $1 billion. The Fish and Wildlife Service gets $95 million to run its endangered species program, a 10 percent cut.