White House counters Hill offer on spending figure

The House recessed for the Yom Kippur holiday Tuesday night without a deal on a total fiscal 2002 spending number--although several amounts, ranging from $684 billion to $690 billion, were floated among the White House, congressional appropriators, and House and Senate leaders.

According to sources, the White House responded to the $686 billion figure proposed by the bipartisan chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate Appropriations committees with a figure of $684 billion.

Tuesday night, the latter number appeared to have some support among congressional GOP leaders, but not Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., or House Appropriations Committee ranking member David Obey, D-Wis.

Byrd and Obey were sticking with the appropriators' proposal, even as Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., was pushing the White House for another $4 billion on top of the appropriators' proposed education boost. That would drive the FY02 total to $690 billion.

Coming off the House floor Tuesday night, Obey expressed his frustration that the White House counteroffer would trim education and Federal Emergency Management Agency money from the appropriators' proposal and use an emergency declaration for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program to free up money in the Labor-HHS bill.

"I'm tired of trying to help the White House on this issue," said Obey, who saw Tuesday's scheduled Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee markup of the FY02 bill scuttled because the White House and Congress could not agree on a final FY02 education number.

"If the White House won't work with people who are trying to help them, then I'm through," Obey said.

As for the administration counteroffer, Obey said: "I'm not willing to engage in accounting fibs...They've sat around for almost a week [since appropriators offered $686 billion] not responding, and now you're in a bidding war.... At this point, I'm done with them."

Earlier Tuesday evening, Byrd had complained that the White House was ignoring a good offer from appropriators, while Senate education conferees were pushing for even more.

Kennedy made an impassioned plea for increased funding for the Elementary and Secondary Education Act at a conference meeting with the House Tuesday afternoon, despite efforts by appropriators to keep the numbers down.

"It is important that we continue to work together to invest in our future--our children," he said.

Kennedy later met with Byrd to make the case for boosting the spending number beyond the $4 billion increase--a net increase of $3.3 billion--that appropriators proposed, but no decisions were made, sources said. Kennedy is pushing for a net increase of $8 billion for education in FY02, according to sources.

Tuesday evening, Byrd told reporters he was sticking with the $686 billion figure, and no more. As for the $690 billion number, Byrd said: "I wasn't in on that. I haven't agreed to anything like that. As far as I'm concerned, we made our proposal. We're having a heck of a time getting the White House to agree to that. I think they're foolish if they don't agree to it. The longer we quibble, the more the pressure is to disagree."

Neither House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bill Young, R-Fla., nor Senate Appropriations Committee ranking member Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, was available Tuesday night to comment on the administration's counteroffer.

But appropriators have stuck together on their $686 billion proposal. Tuesday afternoon, Young told reporters, "We've tried to convey the message [to the Office of Management and Budget] that if that number isn't acceptable and this drags on, that number is going to get larger."

Also Tuesday, the House passed its $400 million FY02 District of Columbia spending bill by a vote of 327-88, with Obey voting present. The Senate approved by voice vote the House-passed continuing resolution to fund government operations at current spending levels, from the Oct. 1 start of FY02 through Oct. 16.

The Senate is expected to pass the FY02 Military Construction bill today. The $10.5 billion bill was reported out of the Appropriations Committee Tuesday by a unanimous voice vote.

Although the committee also was scheduled to mark up the FY02 District of Columbia bill Tuesday, the bill was pulled from consideration and has yet to be rescheduled for markup.

Geoff Earle and April Fulton contributed to this report.