Government Executive Magazine - 9/6/00 Senate hopes to finish spending bills in early October

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said today he hopes Congress can wrap up its work for the year "the first week after the start of the fiscal year"-the already targeted Oct. 6-but refused to be pinned down on just how expeditiously legislators can work through the unfinished items on the agenda, including spending and tax bills, Medicare and trade.

Lott said that this week and part of next week would be devoted to a debate and vote on granting permanent normal trade relations to China and the fiscal year 2001 Energy and Water appropriations bill. A number of senators plan to offer amendments to the China permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) legislation, but Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., predicted all of them would fail-including one on weapons proliferation offered by Senate Governmental Affairs Chairman Thompson. Baucus also said he would not rule out opposing PNTR if GOP leaders refuse to thwart "killer amendments."

Lott said he plans to discuss an offer that House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., made to President Clinton last week to back away from a few business tax cuts and accept a minimum wage hike over two years instead of the three-year time frame grudgingly preferred by some Republicans.

"We have not reached a point where we have made that kind of proposal," Lott told reporters, but said it would be a topic of discussion in leadership meetings over the next 24 hours. Also on the tax front, Lott said he expected the second reconciliation tax bill, which the Senate Finance Committee will take up later this week, would be limited to pension expansion and reform and not be a vehicle for a number of other tax items, such as the repeal of the telephone excise tax.

Meanwhile, a House GOP leadership aide said he sees "some opportunity" to win an override vote next week on Clinton's veto of the marriage penalty relief bill. "We're not kidding ourselves, it's a very tough vote, but there is some opportunity here," the source said, explaining that leadership wanted a "full week ramp-up" prior to holding the vote. The vote on the estate tax repeal override, which is considered less likely to succeed, will be held Thursday. "It's a win-win situation [on the marriage penalty bill] because whatever the result, it will offer a clear contrast between the two parties," the leadership source said. "We know the Democratic leadership will be clamping down hard on their members to vote against it."