Clinton likely to veto Treasury-Postal bill

The White House Monday indicated President Clinton is likely to veto the combined fiscal 2001 Legislative Branch and Treasury-Postal appropriations package because its funding levels for the Internal Revenue Service and counterterrorism operations are too low.

"It's hard to see how that bill, at this point, is acceptable," White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart said. Noting the GOP itself had sought to highlight reforms needed at the IRS, Lockhart accused the GOP of failing to follow through on its own agenda.

"We all remember the great, theatrical hearings that took place," Lockhart said, referring to Senate Finance Committee hearings held last year on alleged IRS abuses. "Now, when we come to the time we've actually got to appropriate some money for the important changes we're making, the Republican majority has decided to underfund it."

Senate Democrats last week dropped their procedural objections to the conference report on the package, and the Senate will vote on the measure this week. It passed the House last week.

Lockhart also derided the Republican plan to devote 90 percent of next year's surplus to debt reduction-indicating the GOP is abandoning its own tax cuts-but did not reject working with Republicans in the context of the proposal.

"If, at the bottom of the ninth inning, the Republicans have finally realized that debt reduction is the right policy, and they want to repudiate everything that they've done this year, then they're moving in the right direction," Lockhart said.

But he insisted that funds not used for debt reduction be used to address Clinton's priorities. "We don't know how susceptible they'll be to their basic instinct of loading these [spending bills] up with pork," he said.

Another senior White House official argued that Clinton's budget plan would end up devoting 95 percent of next year's surplus to debt reduction. "We were never hostile to" the 90 percent plan, he said, adding, "Their tax scheme is hostile to debt reduction."