Government Shutdown Feared Due To Clinton-Republican Standoff

The federal government edged closer to a shutdown Thursday as congressional Republicans forged ahead with a pair of temporary budget measures that the White House vowed to veto.

The immediate threat to government operations is the expiration at the end of Monday of most of the government’s spending authority. The Senate voted 50-46 Thursday to approve legislation allowing federal spending to continue through November while Congress continues to work on its bogged-down budget for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. The House approved a similar measure Wednesday.

A second measure would temporarily increase the government’s $4.9 trillion borrowing limit by $67 billion. Without it, the government is in serious danger of running out of sufficient cash to operate on Nov. 15. The House voted 227-194 Thursday to increase the debt limit, and that measure also was pending in the Senate late into the night.

But even as Congress worked, administration officials declared the measures unacceptable.

The White House objects to several conditions in the measures that promote the GOP agenda, such as the requirement to balance the budget by 2002, abolish the Commerce Department and bar lobbying by nonprofit organizations or private companies that receive federal funding.

White House spokesman Mike McCurry said “there doesn’t seem to be any possibility” that Congress would pass a spending bill by the Monday deadline that would escape a Clinton veto.

“Default seems to be increasingly likely,” he said.