Disaster Relief Measure Stuck In Political Mire Impeding $5 Billion Bill In Senate, Gop Wants Government-Shutdown Block; Clinton Has Veto

Legislation to send billions of dollars to disaster victims remained trapped in a partisan thicket on Tuesday as Republicans insisted on attaching a provision barring future government shutdowns and the White House stuck by its veto threat.

While the Senate marked time, Majority Leader Trent Lott convened a meeting in his office in hopes of resolving the dispute. “I think we can work through it, and we’re going to try to do it,” he said, although initial attempts were inconclusive.

The underlying legislation provides more than $5 billion for nearly two dozen states to help victims of floods, hurricanes, fires and other ravages of nature and enjoys wide support in the Senate.

At the same time, Republicans have seized on the bill as a vehicle for a provision to make clear they have no intention of repeating the twin government shutdowns of two winters ago. The proposal would provide for continued government spending at 98 percent of current levels if regular spending bills aren’t signed into law by the Oct. 1 beginning of the next fiscal year. The White House and congressional Democrats say 98 percent is too low, and President Clinton says he would veto the bill over that provision.

Funding programs at 98 percent of current levels would leave many accounts well below the amount envisioned in the balanced-budget deal that Clinton and the GOP leadership agreed to last week, for example. In issuing a veto threat on Monday, the administration said the GOP proposal amounted to “locking in low levels” of spending.

The same issue is also complicating efforts to pass the disaster aid measure in the House, which is expected to debate the bill next week.