Striking a conciliatory tone, House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, said today Republican leaders are striving to decrease the number of contentious appropriations issues they will present to White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles during a meeting Wednesday.
Republicans have "a shorter list of items this year than we've had in past years," he said.
Republican leaders are scheduled to meet with Bowles at what is being described as a meeting crucial to Congress completing the appropriations process and leaving town at the end of the week. Armey said Republicans are willing to drop pet issues, noting, for example, he has "walked away" from his school voucher plan for the District of Columbia funding measure this year.
"We know we'll be back with an even larger majority in the House and the Senate next year," Armey said.
Armey added he is "gratified" by President Clinton's comments that the IMF must be reformed if it is to receive increased funding. He said he believes Republicans will find an acceptable way to settle international family planning language, but he said the question of census sampling will be the last issue settled this Congress.
While Armey said he is pleased with the progress on appropriations, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said he is concerned that the administration is planning a domestic version of "Wag the Dog" by provoking a government shutdown.
"We would like to reach an agreement with them, but the communication has been minimal," Lott said.
At the White House, Press Secretary Joe Lockhart again denied Clinton is seeking a shutdown, and accused Lott and other Republicans of "trying to change the subject themselves" away from a "debate about substance" by alleging "secret plans to shut the government down."
Meanwhile, conferees appear to have made little headway in settling the issues stalling the Treasury-Postal funding measure, whose rule was defeated on the House floor last week. Democrats made it clear they still want to eliminate a provision requiring a majority confirmation vote for key FEC staff, but they could not accept any plan to drop a provision that would give green cards to thousands of Haitians.
On the other hand, Republicans want dropped a provision dealing with federal employee childcare facilities and want to ensure there is a religious exemption in a provision guaranteeing that federal employee health insurance plans provide contraceptive services.
"We are running out of time," noted House Treasury-Postal Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., saying if the problems are not resolved, the bill will be wrapped into the omnibus funding measure. "Once it goes in the omnibus bill, it's out of our hands," Kolbe said.
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