Budget Impasse Softens But Furloughed Workers Will Remain Off The Job; More Talks Will Be Held Today

The White House and Republican leaders expressed optimism Friday over balanced budget negotiations, but failed to agree to immediately return federal employees to work and reopen the government.

The GOP congressional leaders met with President Clinton for 3-1/2 hours at the White House and scheduled another session for today, as the Republicans sounded out key committee chairman on the talks. All sides agreed not to release any details.

Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole called the meeting a “constructive session.” Presidential spokesman Mike McCurry said it ended “amicably,” adding that Clinton was optimistic a compromise would be reached.

But there was a sour note for furloughed federal workers, passport applicants and visitors to national parks and Smithsonian museums. Parts of the government, closed since Dec. 16, will remain so for now.

Republicans tied a back-to-work plan for federal employees to their demand that a balanced budget deal be considered under an expedited Senate procedure that would allow 10 hours of debate. All amendments would have to be discussed within that limited time period.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt,. said Democrats objected to a shortened debate because “I don’t think we can get members to waive the Senate rules on a piece of legislation we have not yet seen.”

“We ought to be able to reach some agreement on how we would be able to handle the bill,” Dole countered in an exchange on the Senate floor. He said the issue would be discussed again Saturday when negotiations resume.

Speaker Newt Gingrich, speaking to reporters as the meeting began, said negotiators - in addition to sending employees back - were trying “to find a way to possibly get everyone paid.”

Gingrich noted that the Senate last week passed a back-to-work plan sponsored by Dole, who also was at the White House meeting. It would declare all federal workers essential, and guarantee that they would be paid when appropriations were passed.

Lawrence Haas, spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget, said under such a plan, federal facilities could reopen and workers could do their jobs - provided their agencies did not need an influx of money. Now, 280,000 “non-emergency” federal employees are home on furlough.

“You could reopen the national parks, and the Smithsonian museums, and leave them open if they have existing resources to operate,” Haas said.

“Passport offices would reopen. But if one of the parks ran out of gasoline, you couldn’t buy more gas. The State Department could issue passports, but could not buy paper. We can restart activities, but there are limits.”

The talks began on upbeat note, with Gingrich commenting, “There are reasons to be cautiously optimistic.”

House Republicans - especially freshmen - have insisted that any agreement to reopen the partially closed government could not come until Clinton approves a seven-year balanced budget plan.

Seated on either side of Clinton, Gingrich, R-Ga., and Dole, R-Kan., said legislation returning workers to the federal payroll could be voted on in the next two or three days.

Both houses could approve a measure to end the shutdown by voice vote, without calling most members back to Washington. This is called a “unanimous consent procedure,” under which agreement is worked out in advance. But any member could scuttle the procedure by raising an objection on the House or Senate floor.

While the Senate frequently operates by unanimous consent, the House usually does not - preferring to have votes with members present.

Imploring both sides to agree on a seven-year balanced budget plan, Gingrich said, “We hope in the next two or three days we could basically get this done and then have things up and running and every one paid while the staff work is finished out.”

“We feel strongly that all federal employees ought to be back … to work.”

Clinton said progress was made Friday on staff-level talks, “and I expect us to make further progress” in the high-level discussions.

Before seeing Gingrich, Dole and top Democrats at the White House, Clinton sent his principal negotiators to the Capitol to work out the agenda with the House and Senate budget committee chairmen.

“I think we made some progress,” White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta commented, as he headed to the White House after the three-hour meeting.

Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said earlier that the group had “working papers with about 10 issues. I hope we can narrow down the issues.”

A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Clinton, Dole and Gingrich would discuss welfare, the earned-income tax credit, taxes and discretionary spending.