Government Executive Magazine - 9/11/00 GOP leaders to meet with Clinton on spending bills

Top House and Senate GOP leaders were unable late last week to solve problems that have stalled the legislative process this year, but said they hoped a meeting with President Clinton Tuesday would generate progress.

"How can you ever get to an end unless you're talking?" asked Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss. "We're going to see if they're serious at all or playing a totally political game, which is what they [have been] doing."

Many GOP leaders have voiced doubts about whether President Clinton will deal with them in good faith and began laying the groundwork for blaming the President if the session ends in gridlock. At the same time, several GOP staff-level sources have made it clear Republicans understand they will need to spend a lot more money and cut some unpopular deals to get their members home to campaign for re-election.

On key appropriations issues that will dominate the end of the session, Republicans want Clinton to specify his exact demands on a bill-by-bill basis at the bicameral, bipartisan meeting Tuesday.

"The key thing now is to meet with the White House--not to negotiate but to outline the differences," said GOP Policy Committee Chairman Larry Craig of Idaho. "We'll do it in a bipartisan way. If the White House is unwilling to do that, then the question is, what do they want?"

Said Senate Appropriations Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, "There's not enough days to do what we have to do unless we foster a greater spirit of cooperation."

Toward that end, both chambers' Appropriations subcommittee chairmen have been instructed to find out how much money the White House needs to approve bills and define their major areas of disagreement with the administration, although legislators said they are not at the point of negotiating final numbers.

Also on next week's agenda, according to a Senate Appropriations spokeswoman, is convening "as many as possible" of the pending FY2001 conference committees, among them Foreign Operations, Interior, Transportation and Energy and Water.

In addition, she said Stevens hopes to mark up his committee's last two FY2001 bills, the VA-HUD and District of Columbia bills.

The Senate late Thursday approved the FY2001 Energy and Water appropriations bill by a 93-1 vote.

Bipartisan negotiations are ongoing in the House to secure passage this week of the conference report on the Legislative Branch and Treasury-Postal appropriations bills and the repeal of the telephone excise tax.

But GOP leaders are deferring decisions on their thorniest appropriations policy differences with the White House--Cuba trade policy on the Agriculture bill, school construction funding and workplace ergonomics standards in Labor-HHS, international family planning policy in Foreign Operations and setting a national drunk driving standard of 0.08 percent blood alcohol level in the Transportation bill.

To close out the 106th Congress, Republicans may have to resolve internal conflicts as well, including tensions between the two chambers over how much congressional Republicans should compromise to get out of town and presumably boost their political fortunes.

"The House leadership is in complete panic mode," said one Senate GOP leadership aide. "They've got their principles on the auction block, so they can hang onto their drapes."

Several House GOP aides countered that the Senate was actually at fault for holding up the budget process, because of its failure to act expeditiously on spending bills.

GOP leaders are also trying to overcome internal obstacles on the minimum wage, managed care reform and prescription drug coverage--key election year issues that will also come up at the White House meeting.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and Majority Whip Don Nickles, R-Okla., who have been negotiating managed care legislation, each made a presentation on the issue at Thursday's bicameral meeting.

"It's something I think we need to do," said Lott.

Asked if House GOP leaders were prepared to give away too much on the health care issue, Lott said, "I thought that the Speaker was talking very rationally and very thoughtfully on that matter."