Apparently catching some House conservatives off guard, the GOP leadership rammed the Treasury-Postal appropriations bill through the House in less than 50 minutes Wednesday, before the conservatives were able to figure out a strategy for how to offer an amendment killing a cost-of-living increase for members of Congress.
"We were definitely flat footed," Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz., told reporters. "The people who were going to lead the fight ... were not on the floor." The former sportscaster later added, "It was a quick count, that's what it was."
A sweating Rep. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said he was rushing to the floor to offer an amendment that would have deleted the cost- of-living increase when the bells rang for a vote on final passage.
House Republican leaders appeared to take pleasure in slam- dunking the same group of conservatives who had offered a myriad of amendments on the Labor-HHS spending bill, causing that legislation to take three weeks to pass.
"I would never catch any member off guard," House Appropriations Chairman Livingston said, with a slight grin on his face. "We had to make up for lost time."
House GOP leaders have struggled with the pay issue for several days.
Under one proposal, the Treasury-Postal bill would have gone to the floor under an open rule.
The rule would not have protected an amendment to strike the pay increase, meaning any member could raise a point of order against it. Conservatives then could have forced a procedural vote.
At the last minute, Republican leaders decided to quickly take the bill to the floor without a rule, meaning the same point of order could have been raised.
However, that strategy also had other risks.
Without a rule, unauthorized programs would not have been protected against a point of order, meaning that such unauthorized agencies as the FEC, the IRS and the ATF could have been cut from the bill.
A key House Republican aide conceded that if that happened, "[we would] have to reconstruct this [bill] in conference." However, no large amendments were offered.
Members clearly were surprised by the speed in which the GOP leaders rammed the bill through the House.
"I have no idea what I'm voting on," Rep. Lindsey Graham, R- S.C., told reporters, when asked how he planned to vote. "But when in doubt, vote no."
A clearly disturbed Coburn said conservatives will offer an amendment to stop the pay increase as part of the Commerce- Justice-State bill.
The Senate already has such an amendment as part of its Treasury-Postal bill.
Coburn said he had gone back to his office to get a copy of the amendment the conservatives planned to offer. "By the time I finished that, they were on final passage," he said.
However, a smiling Republican leadership aide said, "It's the normal appropriations process. It's the middle of the day."
Treasury, Postal and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman James Kolbe, R-Ariz., added, "There's no pulling a fast one on anybody."
However, an aide to Rep. Linda Smith, R-Wash., one of the leaders of the anti-pay raise movement, said, "Absolutely no notice was given that they were going to rush this on the floor."
He said the bill caught members by surprise and that Smith was on the floor when the bill was being considered, but realized that her amendment would be ruled out of order.
In other appropriations news, House and Senate negotiators Wednesday approved a compromise version of the 1998 legislative branch appropriations bill, giving a slight increase to the GAO and a slight cut to the Joint Committee on Taxation, LEGI-SLATE News Service reported.
In the end, the conference committee settled on a final budgetary authority of $2.25 billion.
The numbers break down to $5.8 million for the Joint Taxation Committee, $339.5 million for the GAO, $12.7 million for joint committees, $24.8 million for the CBO, $127.2 million for the Architect of the Capitol, $346.4 million for the Library of Congress, $74.1 million for the Capitol Police, $24.8 million for the Office of Compliance and $99.7 million for the Government Printing Office.
"You drive a hard bargain," House Legislative Appropriations Subcommittee chairman James Walsh, R-N.Y., told Senate Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Robert Bennett, R-Utah.
Also Wednesday, a House-Senate conference committee approved a $13.75 billion FY98 agriculture spending bill, LEGI-SLATE News Service reported.
The measure, which was passed without objection in less than 15 minutes, includes funding for a youth tobacco initiative, money for President Clinton's food safety plan and funds to operate a popular drug-user fee program.
The spending measure authorizes a total of $49.55 billion in mandatory and discretionary spending for agriculture and FDA programs, which is about $2.75 billion less than the president requested.
Meanwhile, in yet another appropriations-related development, Congress cleared and sent to Clinton the first of the 13 annual appropriations bills needed to run the government in FY98.
The Military Construction appropriations bill Wednesday passed the Senate by 97-3 after gaining House approval a day earlier.
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