DUELING FOR DOLLARS

	October 28 ,1999
	Kwame Holman has today's budget story.

KWAME HOLMAN: The House of Representatives today took care of first things first. With temporary spending for many government programs set to expire at midnight, members debated and voted on yet another extension of that funding, a device known as a continuing resolution. It provides funds at last year's levels, giving congressional and White House budget negotiators more time to work out a final spending solution for the current fiscal year, which began October 1. SPOKESMAN: And Mr. Speaker, it is my understanding that the president, that this is acceptable to the president, and I would hope we could expedite... SPOKESMAN: Mr. Speaker, the house is still not in order. We've got several conventions going on on the floor. SPOKESMAN: The gentleman is correct and the chair is going to start naming names. KWAME HOLMAN: In truth, many members weren't paying much attention to the first debate. After all, this was the third continuing resolution Congress has had to pass in the last three weeks and the points of debate already were well known. But that didn't keep some members from making them again. REP. BILL CLAY, (D) Missouri: If the Republican leadership had done its job instead of playing politics with appropriations for vital government services, I wouldn't be here this morning to speak on this unnecessary continuing resolution. REP. LLOYD DOGGETT, (D) Texas: You know, this Congress is quickly running out of federal buildings to name around the country. It's about commemorated everything that can be commemorated, and since these uncontested measures represent the principle legislative product of this Republican do- nothing Congress, this legislation deserves a name: The Republican Congressional Failure Act of 1999. KWAME HOLMAN: As chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Florida's Bill Young has been the lone Republican obliged to respond to the Democrats' charges. Today he brought charts to make his case. REP. BILL YOUNG, Chairman, Appropriations Committee: Now let me tell you how the job has been done. Look at this chart. There are 30 items on this chart that the Appropriations Committee will have done at the end of this day, 30 items. I challenge any other committee in the House or the Senate to have produced 30 measures to bring before their body for votes. KWAME HOLMAN: As expected, House members approved their third continuing resolution this month, on a near unanimous vote. It was sent off for the Senate to approve and for the President to sign before midnight. However, the debate and vote that followed reflected the reality of the partisan disagreement over federal spending, and revealed the same budget impasse that has entangled congressional Republicans, Democrats and the President for weeks. REP. LORETTA SANCHEZ, (D) California: The Republican leadership is urging that we make severe cuts to our nation's domestic programs. And you know, this is just after the last four or five months, when they said there was so much money there they could return $800 billion. But today, they're telling us, not only can they not do that, but they've got to cut the funding programs of the national government. REP. TOM DeLAY, Majority Whip: It's almost Halloween, and the Democrats are up to their usual tricks, in search of the big government treats. Like all of our appropriations bills, this conference report funds many very significant programs sufficiently while maintaining a balanced budget. But despite all the good qualities of this legislation, it's being opposed. KWAME HOLMAN: Republicans came to the floor this afternoon with a different kind of spending bill, a package that combined appropriations for the District of Columbia, appropriations for the Departments of Labor, Education and Health and Human Services, a 1 percent across-the-board cut in all discretionary spending, and a 1 percent reduction in a congressional salary increase scheduled for January 1. Republicans argued their combination of spending priorities and spending cuts would meet their budget targets. REP. DAVID DREIER, Chairman, Rules Committee: What we're saying is is that we're not going to increase the tax burden on working families. We're not going to touch Social Security. And at the same time, we're going to make sure that we don't increase spending. KWAME HOLMAN: As they have been doing for weeks, Democrats jumped to their feet to charge the Republicans' plan indeed touches Social Security. REP. DAVID OBEY, (D) Wisconsin: Despite the fiction we have just heard, we have a letter from this Congressional Budget Office which spells out that the Republican budget so far has eaten into $17 billion of the Social Security surplus - so much for the fiction we just heard. KWAME HOLMAN: Republicans in turn tried to refute Democrats' charge that an across-the-board spending cut would devastate many social programs. REP. ERNEST ISTOOK, (R) Oklahoma: We're hearing people on the other side of the aisle say because this has a 1 percent reduction, not in Social Security benefits, not in veterans benefits, not in Medicare, only in so-called discretionary spending, we can't handle it; even though spending will actually be up for so many of those agencies from what it was before, they don't want to take a hard look at the size of government. KWAME HOLMAN: But Maryland's Democrat Steny Hoyer singled out the "delays" Republicans built into funding for the National Institutes of Health. REP. STENY HOYER, (D) Maryland: We are delaying clinical trials for cancer patients. We are delaying clinical trials for victims of heart disease. We are delaying clinical trials for victims of AIDS. We are delaying clinical trials for children with serious life-threatening diseases. We are delaying them until September 29 and 30. That is... that's 11 months away. Who of you would stand and say to a critically ill child, "wait 11 months?" KWAME HOLMAN: Not expecting the support of many Democrats, Appropriations Chairman Young closed the debate with remarks aimed at holding the narrow Republican majority. REP. BILL YOUNG: We have increased our investment in national defense, a promise that we made. We have increased medical research, a promise that we made. Despite the rhetoric today, to the contrary, we have increased medical research. We have increased education over and above the President's request. It hasn't been easy, but we made promise, and we have kept those promises. And this bill today will complete the promise of having 13 bills on the President's desk, and then we will go to the final phase of our appropriations process for this year. And then we can all go home and be with our constituents, where we should spend considerable time. KWAME HOLMAN: Early this evening, the Republican spending plan passed the House as expected, on a nearly party line vote. The Senate is likely to pass it as well. The measure awaits a promised veto by President Clinton. Once that happens, all sides can resume closed-door negotiations over what to fund and where to cut.