Senate Devises A Plan To Bring Workers Back

They met. They talked. The government stayed closed.

As the partial government shutdown entered a record-breaking seventh day Friday, talks between President Clinton and congressional leaders yielded little more than a promise to keep talking next week to see if compromise was possible on the balanced budget plan.

Late in the day, however, the Senate passed by voice vote a proposal by Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., that changed the law and deemed all federal workers emergency personnel.

This in theory would permit 260,000 non-emergency employees to return to work, though Democrats raised questions as to whether workers could perform services that involved spending money.

But the House - where Republicans have refused to reopen the government - had already left for Christmas and is not expected to return until Wednesday. “The blame now is where it ought to be - not on the Senate,” said Sen. Wendell Ford of Kentucky, the deputy Democratic leader.

House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., was noncommittal on whether the House would accept the measure to send the furloughed employees back to work.

Dole said the principals agreed that all federal workers who have been furloughed should receive back pay. Since that payroll totals $40 million a day, he said, taxpayers should see work performed for that money. Under the law, federal supervisors may face criminal sanctions if they permit non-emergency employees to volunteer.