So-Called Clean Bills Should Be The Rule

First, they were flooded by Mother Nature. Now, they’re being snowed by their federal government.

Residents in 33 states eligible for national flood relief sit helplessly on their sandbags while Congress and President Clinton exploit them - and their circumstances - for political advantage.

The Republican Congress bears most of the guilt, but Clinton owns a share of culpability, too.

The original idea was straightforward: Bring federal resources to the aid of flood-ravaged communities. Who could argue?

No one, of course, and that created an opportunity too inviting to miss. Congress came up with the flood relief, but Republicans added several partisan objectives they hoped to push past Democrat Clinton on the strength of the relief funds.

House Speaker Newt Gingrich didn’t invent this trick. Senators and representatives have been sewing unrelated provisions into the hems of popular bills for ages, regardless of which party was in power.

The tactic can’t work in most states. State legislatures like Washington’s require the provisions of a bill to be within the scope expressed in its title. A bill dealing with flood relief, therefore, could not become the instrument for language about census counts. It couldn’t become the vehicle for standby appropriations to keep government agencies running if their budgets aren’t passed.

Yet, those contentious issues are what Republicans in Congress put in the federal flood-relief bill. And they are the reasons Clinton gave for vetoing it.

Congress is long overdue in taking a lesson from the states and confining its own legislation to specific topics. If Republicans don’t want the U.S. Census Bureau to engage in statistical sampling, they should spell that out in a separate bill and let the idea stand or fall on its own merits. Flood relief, however, ought to be handled with the compassion disaster victims deserve.

Clinton, meanwhile, should be sending a calming message, rather than escalating the rhetoric. He should be reassuring anxious citizens in the 33 states that this political skirmish won’t be allowed to delay the relief funding from getting where it’s needed, when it’s needed.

Recovering from a natural disaster is enough of an ordeal without the added anxiety of wondering if your government cares.

Mother Nature is notoriously unfair. Congress doesn’t have to be.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Doug Floyd/For the editorial board