As the Senate Thursday broke its logjam and cleared four pending fiscal year 2001 appropriations bills, the House voted 407-2 for a third continuing resolution to keep the federal government running through next Friday, Oct. 20-and to buy Congress another week to finish the remaining spending bills and other must-pass legislation before adjourning.
With Thursday's action, the Senate passed a compromise version of the VA-HUD spending bill that also includes a revised version of the Energy and Water measure that President Clinton vetoed last week, and approved, 58-37, the combined Treasury-Postal/Legislative Branch conference report, which contains legislation to repeal the telephone excise tax. Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said he expects President Clinton to sign them all.
Daschle also said the Senate should begin debate on the Agriculture appropriations conference report Friday, continue debate next Tuesday and vote on it Wednesday morning. That would leave three fiscal year 2001 bills outstanding-Commerce-Justice-State, Foreign Operations and Labor-HHS-with the completed conference report on the District of Columbia on hold should GOP leaders need it to carry any of the others.
Negotiations with the administration continued Thursday on the Commerce-Justice-State spending bill, but six major areas of disagreement remain: hate crimes legislation, the government's lawsuit against the tobacco industry, Hispanic immigration, coastal conservation funding, low power FM radio licensing and language to block the merger of Deutsch Telekom and VoiceStream.
The Senate Thursday approved the combined VA-HUD and Energy and Water appropriations bill 87-8 after rejecting two attempts by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., to water down restrictions contained in the VA-HUD appropriations bill that environmentalists fear would hinder EPA efforts to safeguard air and water quality.
Boxer's first amendment, which was tabled 64-31, would have allowed the EPA to move forward with separate plans to establish new drinking water standards and to publicize cities with unsafe smog levels. The Senate also discarded, 56-39, a sense of the Senate resolution proposed by Boxer that urged the agency to move ahead with plans to clean up contaminated sediments in waterways. The underlying VA-HUD measure would delay EPA action in all three areas.
The White House's tacit support for the $87.8 billion appropriations bill created an interesting alliance with several Democrats, including Daschle and Senate VA-HUD Appropriations ranking member Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., joining with most Republicans to oppose Boxer's amendments. The White House has indicated its support for the bill, even though EPA Administrator Carol Browner has said she opposes any spending bill containing "anti-environmental" riders.