Government Executive - Authors - Adam Rappaport

Key House leader to keep pressure on Clinton

Adam Rappaport — Tue, 01 Sep 1998 00:00:00 -0400

For the most part, House leaders plan to take it easy during the last week before they start the final month-long push to adjournment next Wednesday-but politics will still take up some of their time. Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, will be the most active with his drive to pressure President Clinton to resign in the wake of the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

From his Texas district, DeLay will make additional television appearances and continue to coordinate efforts with other members of the GOP whip operation. DeLay continued to push ahead of his colleagues in the Republican leadership this weekend, when he said on "Fox News Sunday" the House should stay in session this year to act on any report submitted by Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr.

"We need to stay in session as long as it takes to get this behind us," he said. While some Republicans would rather wait until at least after the November election to deal with any charges, DeLay said he disagrees with that notion.

Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., has so far shown little interest in addressing the politically tricky issue before the House adjourns, and GOP leaders have no plans to try to coordinate this week and are not scheduled to meet or have a conference call.

For his part, Gingrich this week will be far from the debate: House Resources Chairman Don Young, R-Alaska, is hosting the speaker as he tours portions of the state, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Tonight, Gingrich will attend a fundraiser on Young's behalf hosted by representatives of Alaska's tourism industry. The fundraiser will be held in the home of former Alaska Gov. Bill Sheffield, a Democrat.

Gingrich then moves on to Montana, where he will excavate for dinosaur bones during a family vacation-with a break to speak Tuesday at a fundraiser for Rep. Rick Hill, R-Mont.

Meanwhile, Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, will make a speech to the libertarian Mont Pelerin Society tonight, then leave Wednesday to campaign in several states for Republican candidates.

Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, R-Mo., will return from a similar trip today, then head to New Hampshire Thursday before going to his St. Louis district for the weekend.

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Appropriations chief demands new spending cuts

Adam Rappaport — Tue, 28 Jul 1998 00:00:00 -0400

Since revenue from the tobacco bill and other sources will not be available to offset many of the Clinton administration's spending requests, the White House must pick out new ones before the August recess, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bob Livingston, R-La., wrote President Clinton Monday.

"At this point in the appropriations process, if you are serious about the increased spending, we need an indication from you on what offsets you intend for us to use to provide any increased spending. We need this information now," Livingston wrote.

An Office of Management and Budget spokeswoman responded that the administration "is ready to work constructively with Congress at the appropriate time to identify offsets." However, she noted that only one spending bill has made it all the way through Congress so far.

Clinton's budget included $9 billion in increased revenue to pay for additional discretionary spending, but "the offsets you have proposed have little, if any, political life," Livingston wrote, noting that the tobacco tax and the veterans tobacco limitation are either dead or have already been used for the highway bill.

"All of the proposals in the president's budget are paid for," said the OMB spokeswoman. Still, any new proposed offsets "must be real and doable" so that Congress can develop signable bills, Livingston wrote.

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Projected budget surplus grows

Lisa Caruso and Adam Rappaport — Thu, 16 Jul 1998 00:00:00 -0400

Even without counting the Social Security surplus, the budget will be in balance in 2002 using new CBO projections released Wednesday.

The new figures foretell a much brighter fiscal future than was envisioned just five months ago. The projected surplus for this year is $63 billion, rising to $251 billion in 2008. The CBO predicts that the cumulative surplus for those years will be nearly $1.6 trillion.

If Social Security is excluded, the budget reaches balance in 2002, then returns to a deficit for two years before again going into surplus. The total surplus will be $169 billion for 1999-2008 if Social Security is ignored.

However, even the CBO could not explain most of the change from March's estimate of just $671 billion in surplus from 1999- 2008, a problem that concerns at least one Republican on the House Budget Committee.

"It's extremely worrisome. They can't say what could change to ruin that or increase [the surplus] even more," the member said. For FY98, an unexpected $45 billion increase in individual income tax revenue accounted for the difference.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., hailed the new figures and reiterated that the first priority must be "to protect and preserve the fiscal integrity of Social Security." That position has previously angered some conservative Republicans who want to use the money for a large tax cut.

But Domenici added in his statement that once there is a surplus without using Social Security, "we must also move to approve a significant tax cut that will send this money back to the American people."

That statement came several hours after House Budget Committee Chairman John Kasich, R-Ohio, presented Domenici's proposal for a bare-bones budget reconciliation measure with an uncertain tax cut to Republicans on his committee, and got a skeptical reception.

"I don't think there was anybody who liked what [Domenici] did. There were different levels of discomfort," said one member. The member added, however, that there is strong interest in reaching a compromise. And another GOP member of the panel called Domenici's plan "a starting point."

The most contentious issue remains the size of a tax cut. According to one member, Kasich said Domenici was willing to go up to $70 billion, but only if offsets could be found.

However, several sources questioned if any significant savings can be located that would garner a majority. "Everything that comes up [as a proposed offset] everybody is scared to death of," said Rep. Mike Parker, R-Miss., a Budget Committee member.

Parker added that it will be difficult to get a final tax cut number because "we lose as many guys if we go below $100 billion as if we go above."

Kasich has asked Domenici to meet with House Budget Committee Republicans to make his case to them himself, and hopes to schedule something today.

Meanwhile, House conservatives have called for a meeting with House Speaker Gingrich today to continue to press the case for a $101 billion tax cut.

The Conservative Action Team met Wednesday, after which the CATs chairman, Rep. David McIntosh, R-Ind., said the group is concerned the Ways and Means Committee will move legislation to extend certain tax breaks that expire this year before doing a reconciliation bill.

McIntosh said conservatives want the protection of reconciliation to ensure their tax cut priorities of ending the "marriage penalty" and lowering capital gains taxes are protected.

An aide to one conservative member said CATs are afraid that if Ways and Means does an extender bill first, it will take momentum away from a larger tax cut package.

But the aide added that leadership staff have assured the CATs that will not happen, and that the meeting with Gingrich was requested to clarify that point.

For his part, Gingrich declared Wednesday, "With a whopping $1.5 trillion surplus over 10 years, we can preserve, protect and strengthen Social Security while also passing significant tax relief for hardworking Americans."

But the White House said it stood by President Clinton's State of the Union address call to use surpluses to buttress Social Security.

"Whatever the size of the surplus, the president is committed to reserving the surplus until we determine how to get Social Security right for the next generation," an OMB spokeswoman told the Associated Press.

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Senate appropriators get extra $1 billion

Matthew Morrissey and Adam Rappaport — Tue, 16 Jun 1998 00:00:00 -0400

Senate Appropriations Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, will spread $900 million to $1.1 billion in additional appropriations among his subcommittees this week because of budget scoring changes that took effect once President Clinton signed the reauthorization of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act.

Stevens plans to not only give the transportation subcommittee more money, but may spread some of the money around to other subcommittees for uses other than transportation.

A Stevens aide Monday confirmed the chairman is working on reallocating funding levels to the appropriations subcommittees, but does not yet have a deadline by which he plans to announce the changes.

Appropriators won the extra money when the ISTEA reauthorization bill established budget firewalls for highway and transit spending, which, in turn, reduced non-defense discretionary appropriations for those programs. And by using the OMB scoring, instead of the CBO scoring, $900 million to $1.1 billion was left for other appropriations, aides said.

The new levels of appropriations subcommittee funding likely will have to be approved by the full Appropriations Committee before subcommittees can act on their allocations, aides said.

Among the interests closely watching the allocation of the new money are Senate supporters of Amtrak. Aides said Amtrak likely would be the first large item cut if Stevens does not send enough of the extra money to the Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee.

And Senate Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., a longtime foe of Amtrak, may do just that. Sources said Shelby plans to cut the expected funding for Amtrak from $600 million per year to $300 million.

And speculation circulated Monday that Shelby, if he does not get enough extra money from Stevens, may even zero out Amtrak's appropriation.

Senate Finance Chairman William Roth, R-Del., and a bipartisan group of 51 other senators have signed a "Dear Colleague" calling on Shelby to fully fund Amtrak's annual appropriation.

But for now, Senators fighting for Amtrak plan to focus their attention on Stevens. Aides said the size of the extra allocation to the Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee will largely determine what Shelby does for Amtrak.

Amtrak, the Coast Guard and the FAA are the largest portions of the transportation appropriations bill not protected by the highway and transit budget firewalls.

Meanwhile, although saying he is "for the maximum amount of tax cuts we can get," Senate Budget Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., Monday warned it will be difficult to get any sizable cuts through the Senate.

Nearly half of the $100 billion tax cut in the House bill is from discretionary spending, and will therefore face the nearly impossible task of garnering 60 votes in the Senate, he said.

And of the remaining $55 billion from mandatory spending, $14 billion has already been spent on the highway bill and veterans' benefits, leaving about $40 billion. "I believe that very little of the $40 billion that remains can be done," Domenici said.

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Senate passes IRS reform, gives union seat on board

Stephen Norton and Adam Rappaport — Fri, 08 May 1998 00:00:00 -0400

The Senate Thursday voted 97-0 to pass IRS reform legislation after rejecting a proposal to deny an employee union representative a seat on a new agency oversight board.

Senators rejected, 65-35, an amendment offered by Sen. Lauch Faircloth, R-N.C., which would have denied a seat on the board to a representative of the National Treasury Employees Union. Senators also rejected by a vote of 57-42 an amendment offered by Governmental Affairs Chairman Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., to reverse a proposed waiver for that union representative from federal conflict of interest standards.

Under Thompson's proposal, the union representative would have been barred from voting on personnel matters brought before the board.

Thompson cited a letter from Stephen Potts, director of the Office of Government Ethics, to the Senate leadership last week denouncing the inclusion of a union representative on the IRS board.

"We believe that this provision is antithetical to sound government ethics policy and thus to sound government," Potts wrote. "Government decisions should be made by those who are acting for the public interest and not those acting for a private interest. We recommend the elimination of the position on the board that creates such inherent conflicts. The elimination of the position could be coupled with a requirement that the board consult with employee organizations."

But Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., one of the oversight board's original proponents, argued that union representation on the board is imperative.

"We are not putting an employee representative on the board for political reasons, but putting one on the board to make sure you have an individual who can sell and who can persuade and can help get these kinds of restructuring decisions implemented and make certain that there is going to be a minimal amount of resistance on the employees' side," Kerrey said.

Later on Thursday, the Senate by a vote of 59 to 40 struck down an amendment by Sen. Connie Mack, R-Fla., to deny an oversight board seat to the Treasury Secretary.

Both Democrats and Republicans praised the IRS reform measure.

"No agency touches the lives of the Americans more than the IRS," said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M. Yet, "one out of every two Americans said they would rather be mugged than be audited by the IRS. This bill should reverse that prevailing view."

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., agreed. "We need to get on with reforming it, restructuring the IRS, sensitizing them."

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Stripped-Down Supplemental Fails

Lisa Caruso and Adam Rappaport — Fri, 23 May 1997 00:00:00 -0400

Despite pleas from Republican and Democratic members from Midwest and Plains states hit hard by the recent devastating floods, the House leadership late Thursday rejected a pared-down version of the $8.4 billion FY97 disaster supplemental spending bill.

The leadership then recessed the House to preserve its negotiating leverage on contentious provisions included in the bill, according to leadership and other GOP aides involved in the last-minute negotiations.

House Appropriations Chairman Livingston had prepared a fully offset $1 billion version of the supplemental that included money for disaster relief, the Bosnia mission and the Women, Infants and Children nutrition program. But House Majority Leader Armey, who was on the floor and controlled time, refused to recognize Livingston to offer the new bill.

This move came after House members rejected a motion to adjourn the House for the Memorial Day break, 278-67.

Nonetheless, the House was expected to be recessed for three days, then reconvene and recess again through the Memorial Day week. Said one leadership aide, "The simple fact is that several members had problems with the [proposal] and the leadership has got to protect members' rights."

The conference committee on the supplemental has held extensive meetings, but has deadlocked over a few hot-button issues: the automatic continuing resolution, a provision concerning rights-of-way on federal land and language to block the use of sampling data in conducting the 2000 census.

GOP sources made clear that House leaders, and Armey in particular, did not want to clear a must-pass measure minus these provisions and lose the political leverage to force the president to sign it.

But an Armey spokeswoman said Armey and the rest of the leadership merely were responding to North Dakota Gov. Edward Schafer, whom she said had told the leaders "it was his judgment if they got a little bit [of disaster money], now, they wouldn't get a lot later."

"We've been assured that FEMA has plenty of funds to continue its relief efforts and waiting one more week to make sure the bill is accurately done will not slow down the cleanup in any way," the spokeswoman said, adding FEMA has said money would be available at least until July.

Prior to the defeat of the motion to adjourn, which at one point had as many as 102 "yes" votes before members saw the handwriting on the wall and switched their votes to "no," members from flood-ravaged states made impassioned pleas for the House to stay in session and hammer out a compromise supplemental.

With the disaster aid bill bogged down, House Speaker Gingrich earlier Thursday suggested passage of an interim measure providing less money and stripped of add-on provisions opposed by congressional Democrats and the White House.

But in a Thursday afternoon leadership meeting, the decision was made to abandon even that measure.

Sources said Gingrich and Livingston favored action on at least a symbolic disaster aid bill, but Armey and others were opposed.

Earlier, Livingston had said he was drafting his pared-down measure to provide $1 billion to $1.5 billion for disaster relief on the assumption that legislators will renew efforts to pass the overall bill when they return to Washington after the break.

Freshman Rep. John Thune, R-S.D., said on the floor, "I believe that we have made a huge mistake in putting politics and process ahead of people."

Although he and other members from disaster areas conferred with Armey on the floor, Thune told CongressDaily he had "not been given a good explanation" from the leadership about why Livingston's proposal would not work.

Democrats wasted no time blasting the Republican moves, conjuring up memories of the federal government shutdowns of the 104th Congress.

"The same irresponsible crowd who shut down the government is now prepared to shut down disaster relief," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D. "I think what is happening here is unconscionable."

House Democrats said they were at a loss to explain why Republican leaders would give up on the stripped-down bill.

"I'm just baffled and frustrated and disgusted by what's happened tonight," said House Appropriations ranking member David Obey, D-Wis.

House Minority Leader Gephardt said that no Democrat would have objected to Livingston's package, and urged Republican leaders to bring it up. "There is no sensible reason not to do this tonight," he said.

Even before the House's failed vote to adjourn, Senate Democrats said they would not allow their chamber to recess. "We are going to oppose the adjournment resolution in the hope that we can at least send some message about how angered we are," said Senate Minority Leader Daschle.

Both chambers will now need to come into session every three days. But no votes are planned in the House until the week of June 2.

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