Congress passes budget plan calling for 4.6 percent raise

A week later than initially planned and after lengthy negotiations with moderate Democrats, the Senate Thursday passed the fiscal 2002 budget resolution by a vote of 53-47 as five Democrats joined with 48 Republicans to support the nearly $2 trillion plan.

The budget resolution recommends a 4.6 percent average pay raise for federal employees, which would ensure that civilian employees and uniformed military personnel would receive the same average increases next year. President Bush had sought a 3.6 percent average civilian raise in his budget plan.

The House passed the budget resolution on Wednesday.

Democratic Sens. Zell Miller and Max Cleland of Georgia, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, John Breaux of Louisiana and Max Baucus of Montana--the Senate Finance panel's ranking member--crossed party lines to vote for the agreement, while GOP Sens. James Jeffords of Vermont and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island opposed it.

"I'm not going to stand and turn my back on the good, looking for the perfect," Nelson said.

Ten of the 15 Democrats who had voted last month for the Senate's version of the budget resolution--which had a roughly $1.2 trillion tax cut over 10 years and $688.4 billion for fiscal 2002 spending--voted against the conference report, including Sens. Robert Torricelli of New Jersey, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Jean Carnahan of Missouri.

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., had predicted a majority of the 15 Democrats who voted for the Senate's proposed budget resolution would oppose the final product.

Asked about the shrinkage from 65 to 53 votes for the budget resolution, an administration source said, "It just says that the minority leader is very talented at twisting arms." Still, the source said, "This is a great bipartisan victory."

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., meanwhile, tried to address a concern raised by Democrats who defected, saying that education reform would be backed by "additional money and new money."

Senate Republicans praised the budget as a "historic" victory for taxpayers--a marked contrast to Daschle's description of the process leading up to the vote as an abrogation of the "rule of law." Domenici said of the budget, "It stands for prosperity now, and prosperity in the future," while Senate Majority Whip Don Nickles, R-Okla., called the vote "good news for taxpayers."

But Daschle termed the GOP budget "a nuclear bomb for fiscal discipline in this country." Budget ranking member Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said the budget resolution would lead directly to spending of the Social Security surpluses.

However, Breaux, who took the lead in negotiations between Democratic moderates and the Bush administration, called the 11-year, $1.35 trillion reconciled tax cut "balanced and reasonable."

Although many Democrats have argued that the $661.3 billion the budget allocates for FY02 discretionary spending is inadequate, Breaux noted that amount is $26 billion more than current spending--and that more significantly, as the year progresses, Congress can and very likely will appropriate more money, both in response to emergencies and for other priorities.

The budget resolution is "an outline and a guideline ... It is written on paper and not in concrete," Breaux said, and should be passed so the Appropriations and Finance committees can get on with their work.