Spending Deal Averts Third Shutdown Neither Side Claims Victory In Continuing Resolution

The White House and Republican congressional leaders struck a deal late Thursday that averted a third government shutdown until at least March 15.

The complex bill, which passed the House Thursday night, came after hours of intense and often torturous negotiations. But in the spirit of President Clinton’s State of the Union address Tuesday calling for less rancor and more cooperation, Senate, House and White House officials fashioned a compromise in which no side could claim complete victory.

Among Washington state lawmakers, only Rep. Jim McDermott voted against the bill that was approved 371-42.

“In view of where we started, I’m amazed,” said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bob Livingston, R-La. “We were able to understand each other’s differences and reach agreement.”

His Democratic counterpart, Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin, said he has “strong areas of disagreement” with the bill, which, for now, would leave in place deep cuts in education spending. But “the overriding need of the country is to overcome those differences.”

“We’re satisfied that a lot of give-and-take has produced an agreement the president can live with,” White House spokesman Mike McCurry said.

The Senate plans to debate the bill today and then send it on to the White House for Clinton’s signature.

Republicans clearly have abandoned the confrontational tactics that prompted two government shutdowns and cost them support for their policies in public opinion polls. Wednesday, House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., also dropped a threat to force the country into default by failing to pass a law raising the debt ceiling if Clinton doesn’t meet Republican budget demands.

Nine Cabinet departments and scores of smaller agencies would have run out of operating funds Saturday because the White House and Congress have not reached broader agreement on their annual spending bills. The measure passed by the House Thursday night, normally called a continuing resolution, was labeled “the Balanced Budget Down Payment Act” by Republican leaders.

The bill would terminate 10 small programs worth at least $59 million that Clinton also had targeted for elimination. It also orders the sale of a House office building and approximately $100 million of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Scores of education, labor, health and interior programs would be funded at levels much lower than in 1995, potentially causing havoc with AIDS programs and local school budgets.

But the administration won continued funding for many high-profile Clinton initiatives - such as his national youth service program and an anti-crime measure putting 100,000 more police officers on the streets - that Republicans had vowed to terminate.