Republicans Trying To Avoid Another Shutdown

Republicans will ship President Clinton stopgap legislation to keep government running if budget differences haven’t been settled by week’s end, House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Wednesday.

The two sides narrowed some disputes as they continued their marathon battle over a $160 billion measure financing dozens of agencies for the remaining half of fiscal 1996. But though major divisions remained over social spending and environmental restrictions, Gingrich, R-Ga., said the GOP would not allow a new federal shutdown to begin this weekend.

“We want to make sure we keep the government open and pass the appropriations bills, which would be ideal,” or a short-term measure, he told reporters. “We don’t want the government to close under any circumstances.”

Gingrich’s comments reflected an election-year determination by GOP leaders to avoid a repeat of the first two partial shutdowns, which shuttered agencies a total of 27 days and for which Republicans reaped most public blame.

Sharing that viewpoint, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bob Livingston, R-La., prodded his colleagues in a letter announcing, “It’s time to declare victory!” He noted that whatever compromise Congress and the administration concoct, the 1996 spending bills will save at least $23 billion from 1995 levels - more than what would have been required under last year’s failed budget-balancing effort.

Livingston said House Republicans seemed ready to accept higher spending for schools that the more moderate Senate has approved. Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., said the GOP had eased a provision allowing logging in Alaska’s Tongass national forest.

But Democrats remained unhappy, saying Republicans have done little to satisfy the White House. Rep. Sidney Yates, D-Ill., said the bill was destined for “the ash heap” unless it was changed. He produced a letter addressed to both sides and signed by 34 Democratic senators - enough to sustain a veto by Clinton - urging that environmental provisions added by the GOP be dropped.

“We are wasting precious time here if we don’t have further movement” by Republicans, added Rep. David Obey, D-Wis.

Not all Republicans were feeling conciliatory, either. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said the Senate had already given Clinton many of the increases he’s requested.