Agencies' funding in doubt as confusion reigns on Hill

The bizarre ending of the 106th Congress took yet another unanticipated turn Thursday as House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., declared the Congress over and signaled a willingness to send members home while passing one-day continuing resolutions to keep unfunded federal agencies running by unanimous consent.

"It would seem to me that it's over," he said. "We are finished here. The Senate is gone. The President has said he would sign a two-week CR, and it's time to admit failure."

Nevertheless, House GOP leaders appear to have abandoned Wednesday's aborted effort to pass a long-term CR through Nov. 14--which passed the Senate by unanimous consent Wednesday.

Gephardt still said he would oppose a long-term CR--a position GOP leaders say caused them to back away from the proposal Wednesday.

House Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier, R-Calif., said Republican leaders "want everyone to know we're here and we're ready to work." And Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said today, "We're going to be here today, we're going to be here tomorrow, we could even be here Saturday or Sunday."

Gephardt, who made his comments at a news briefing with Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said he would go along with one-day CRs, which House GOP leaders said they will pass.

"We can do it day- to-day, that'll be fine," he said.

Republicans have scheduled a recorded vote for Friday on the Water Resources Development Act, which includes a landmark Everglades restoration bill that Republicans consider crucial to helping GOP presidential candidate George W. Bush win Florida's 25 electoral votes and boosting the re-election efforts of endangered GOP Rep. Clay Shaw.

A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said the Senate would pass CRs by voice vote or unanimous consent, and predicted only a handful of senators would be in town for a vote this evening.

If House leaders resurrect the long-term CR, they would have to fix a few technical problems with it. The Senate took up a year-old CR that had passed the House which does not include funding for a presidential transition, along with a few other errors.

In a Rose Garden statement Thursday, President Clinton blamed the budget impasse on GOP congressional leaders who he said had ignored bipartisan majorities and bowed to "special interest allies" instead of seeking compromise.

"Regrettably, this Congress may well be remembered for broken promises, lost opportunities and misplaced priorities," Clinton said before departing for a two-day campaign swing through California.

Clinton ticked off a list of unfinished White House priorities that included a patients' rights bill, expanded health care, minimum wage increase, education and retirement tax cuts, school improvements, environmental safeguards, a Medicare prescription drug benefit and balanced budget and debt reduction initiatives.

Clinton also claimed that GOP leaders rejected immigration amnesty, gun control and ergonomics legislation while simultaneously filling spending bills with "political election year pork."