House Moves Quickly On Deadline To Pass Temporary Spending Bill Start Of Fiscal Year Pressures Congress To Approve Measure Or Face Goverment Shutdown

Moving with lightning speed, the House approved a bipartisan accord Thursday that would stave off a government shutdown for six weeks while Democrats and Republicans continue tussling over the budget.

That tussling continued in earnest in the Senate. Minority Democrats there blocked debate on one measure that would slice education and other social programs, but Republicans pressed ahead on another bill making reductions in the departments of Commerce, Justice and State.

Lawmakers faced a deadline of Sunday - the first day of fiscal 1996 - to complete the stopgap measure financing the government. Failure meant facing the politically embarrassing spectacle of telling hundreds of thousands of federal workers to stay home Monday because of gridlock over fiscal priorities.

With neither party willing to risk public blame, the House approved the measure by voice vote after less than an hour’s debate, and the Senate prepared to follow, probably on Friday. President Clinton was prepared to sign it into law.

“Enactment will avoid any unnecessary and costly disruption of government operations while we work out our differences” over spending, said Rep. Bob Livingston, R-La., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.

“It won’t cause unnecessary turmoil in this country just because there are strong differences on legislation,” said the panel’s ranking Democrat, Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin.

Temporary spending bills are commonly used by Congress and the president to finance agencies during budget battles. The measure approved Thursday would be the 56th such bill enacted since fiscal 1977.

This year’s episode was forced because Republicans, distracted by internal disputes and their early focus on “Contract With America” measures, have pushed only two of the 13 annual spending bills through Congress. The temporary bill would keep agencies functioning through Nov. 13 without furloughing workers, but with less money.

During that period, the two sides will continue their fight over GOP plans to balance the budget by 2002 by cutting projected spending for Medicare, Medicaid and hundreds of other programs, while boosting the Pentagon’s budget and cutting taxes.

The parties’ differences were spotlighted in the Senate, where partisan battles stalled one huge 1996 spending bill and spilled over into another. The administration has threatened to veto both.

Though outnumbered, Democrats forced Republicans to lay aside one bill that would provide $62.8 billion next year for annually approved education, health and labor programs. Democrats objected that the bill would slash job training, school improvements and other Clinton priorities, and would block him from withholding federal contracts from companies that use strikebreakers.

Democrats prevailed Thursday when the Senate voted twice, 54-46, along party lines to begin debating the measure - six votes short of the 60 needed by Republicans to halt Democratic delays. The Senate probably will not revisit the bill until after lawmakers return from next week’s Columbus Day recess.

Senators then began debating a measure that would provide $27 billion in 1996 for the departments of Justice, Commerce and State.

Democrats were hoping to derail that measure, too. But in an amendment approved by voice vote, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Mark Hatfield, R-Ore., added nearly $500 million to it for various business, foreign affairs and regulatory agencies, a move that Republicans believed would bring them enough Democratic support to pass the bill.