Government Will Reopen This Morning Agreement Ends Shutdown While Negotiations Continue

President Clinton and Republican congressional leaders agreed Sunday to end a budget stalemate that has forced a partial government shutdown for six days and inconvenienced Americans nationwide.

The pact, achieved after a day of intense behind-the-scenes negotiations, paves the way for all 800,000 federal workers who were idled Nov. 14 by the budget impasse to return to work today.

But it does not resolve a still higher-stakes battle over the Republicans’ massive seven-year budget-balancing plan. The agreement reached Sunday will keep the government operating through Dec. 15 while the struggle over the particulars of the budget plan continues.

The two-paragraph agreement commits both the president and Congress to the Republican goal of a balanced budget by 2002. But it also incorporates language favored by Clinton on ensuring adequate funding for Medicaid, education and other programs, as well as committing both sides to unspecified tax policies that would help working families.

The Senate and House both adopted a one-day temporary measure Sunday evening to reopen the government after its longest interruption ever.

Clinton signed the continuing resolution at 10:10 p.m. EST. The 24-hour measure “permits all government employees to return to work tomorrow (Monday),” White House spokesman Jim Fetig said.

The Senate also approved a bill providing short-term funding to keep the government operating through Dec. 15. The House plans to pass that measure today.

Leaders from both parties said they hope to have enacted by Dec. 15 all the regular spending bills for the 1996 fiscal year, which began Oct. 1. But first, they will have to settle huge partisan differences over military spending and social programs.

“What we’ve agreed to in a very bipartisan, non-partisan way … is a very satisfactory conclusion to what has been a rather tense situation the last couple of days,” Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., said as he announced the compromise on the Senate floor.

Shortly thereafter, President Clinton said at a news conference: “Tomorrow (Monday), the government will go back to work, and now the debate will begin in earnest.”

Clinton called the agreement “a good and somewhat unexpected development” and said it reflects “our principles.”

Amid rising anxiety about the nationwide impact of the government furloughs and shuttered national parks, museums and other facilities, the two sides agreed to language that allows each to claim victory. Both also touted the terms as a framework for budget talks.

The deal calls for the president and Congress to enact a balanced budget by the year 2002 based on the conservative economic projections of the Congressional Budget Office, “following a thorough consultation and review” with the White House Office of Management and Budget and other government and private experts.

This was the non-negotiable demand that Republicans made in exchange for approving a temporary spending bill to send the entire government back to work after stopgap funding expired last Tuesday.

Republicans were euphoric about winning Clinton’s commitment to this goal. He had been vacillating in recent months between seven and 10 years as an acceptable timetable.

Dole and House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., were asked at a Capitol Hill news conference, “Who blinked?”

Dole responded, “It’s seven years.”

At the same time, the White House gained some flexibility through broad language stipulating that a balanced budget must address Clinton’s concerns about the effect of spending restrictions on the elderly, the poor, the environment and education.

Clinton said the agreement “represents the first sign of (the Republicans’) willingness to move forward without forcing unacceptable cuts … on the American people.”

Although both sides were claiming victory, Rep. George Nethercutt of Spokane said the Republicans’ claim holds up better.

“We made a commitment and we stuck with it,” Nethercutt said as he drove back to the Capitol after debating the deal on CNN’s “Crossfire.”

Getting the budget balanced in seven years and using the Congressional Budget Office to make the final determination of what’s in balance were points the Republicans held firm on the entire week, the freshman Republican said.

“That’s fine. We’re planning to do that anyway,” Nethercutt said. “Everything’s on the table. But we can’t fool around with the numbers in a way that’s dishonest.”There also may be some adjust ments in the formula for payments to states on Medicaid, he said. The upper limit for the $500-per-child tax credit could be reduced.

Although the stopgap budget measure lasts only until Dec. 15, Nethercutt said that should be enough time “if people will stay and get serious” about negotiating.

“Let’s sit down and get it settled,” he said.

A major hang-up throughout the negotiations was an arcane debate over which economic assumptions would be used to determine whether the budget plan is balanced.

The White House had preferred to rely on the assumptions of its own Office of Management and Budget, which are more optimistic than those of the Congressional Budget Office.

This disparity is significant because it can mean a difference of hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue and spending projections for the next seven years.

A rosier scenario would allow Clinton to preserve higher spending levels for programs he is seeking to protect.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: WHO WON? Both sides have claimed victory in the showdown: The Republicans: GOP leaders say they made Clinton accept, for the first time, a commitment to balance the federal budget in seven years and to accept the Congressional Budget Office as arbiter of final economic terms. Clinton: The president and his top aides say their commitment to those terms is not binding. Also, the agreement says that a balanced budget “must protect” a series of priorities that Clinton has stressed, such as Medicare, education and the environment. - Knight-Ridder

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Los Angeles Times Staff writer Jim Camden contributed to this report.