House Abortion Foes Win Funding Ban Administration Gets Imf Package Past Senate

In a pair of key foreign policy votes, the House linked abortion restrictions to a major State Department bill Thursday while the Senate overwhelmingly endorsed President Clinton’s request for $18 billion for the International Monetary Fund.

The Senate IMF vote was a victory for the administration, the House action a setback.

The House-passed ban on providing money to international family-planning organizations that advocate abortion rights already has drawn the threat of a presidential veto.

Meanwhile, the Senate voted 84-16 to attach the IMF package - designed to help the international lending agency weather the heavy demands from the Asian economic crisis - to a military support and disaster relief bill.

The Senate then completed work on the bill, but held off on a final, assured vote of approval until after the House acts - likely next week.

Including the IMF funds put the Senate at odds with House Republican leaders. The House leaders want to treat the IMF package later and separate from the emergency spending bill, which is heavily laden with new programs and spending items.

The votes came amid a flurry of legislative activity on some of the administration’s top international priorities.

While the spending bill would help pay for troop deployments in Bosnia and the Persian Gulf, the House-passed legislation would authorize the payment of nearly $1 billion in back dues to the United Nations and support a host of State Department programs including a reorganization of the foreign-policy bureaucracy.

But opponents of the House bill - including most Democrats and the Clinton administration - complained about the abortion curbs and said they would drive more women in developing nations into poverty.

“It is misguided and just plain wrong,” said Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, D-N.Y.

Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., an outspoken abortion foe, countered: “American money should not go for killing unborn children, even if they’re Third World unborn children, especially if they’re Third World unborn children.”

Rep. Benjamin Gillman, R-N.Y., chairman of the House International Relations Committee, criticized the administration’s veto threat, saying, “It is shortsighted of the administration to threaten a veto because they are unwilling to work on a family planning compromise.”

In the end, the legislation was passed by voice vote.

The measure now goes to the Senate for a final vote.

The Senate approval of the IMF package came after Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said failure to deal with the issue now could rock financial markets around the world. “If we don’t act, the country better get ready for a slide” in U.S. stock prices.

The package includes $3.4 billion for IMF loan guarantees and $14.5 billion for the U.S. portion of IMF reserves. It includes conditions eased to win the support of the administration - including a call for the IMF to abide by international trade agreements and for major industrial powers to press for reform of IMF lending practices.

The House version - not expected to see action until next month - imposes much stricter conditions on the IMF loans and has drawn administration opposition.

In other actions on the spending bill, the Senate:

Reacted to the Arkansas school shootings by adopting an amendment by Sen. Jeff Bingaman, R-N.M., to provide $10 million to help schools increase security by giving them access to technology developed by the government’s Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque, N.M.

Approved a measure to bar the Interior secretary from approving gambling operations on Indian reservations unless the state approves. The amendment by Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., would make permanent a moratorium imposed last year and due to expire Oct. 1.

Agreed to an amendment by Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, authorizing Clinton to stop selling oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, at least until oil prices rise. “This is the worst time to be selling oil,” Murkowski said, noting the government was selling for $13 a barrel oil it had purchased for $27.

Stripped from the bill $16 million earmarked to force insurance companies to comply with the Kennedy-Kassebaum insurance law that lets workers take coverage with them when they change jobs. Kennedy told the Senate removing the money would “gut the law.”

Approved a Clinton administration proposal reversing a 1996 farm law provision that prevented farmers who had failed to repay past government loans from borrowing again. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said the measure “will give creditworthy farmers a second chance.”

The House version of the spending bill has drawn sharp criticism from Democrats - and a veto threat from the White House - because it seeks to pay for disaster and military programs with cuts in domestic spending programs, including low-income housing, airport projects, bilingual education and Clinton’s AmeriCorps national service program.

The Senate spending bill, totaling about $5 billion not counting the IMF portion, contains no such off-sets.