By
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - President Clinton charged yesterday that Republican submission to "the special interests" was the cause of a year-end budget deadlock over education and other issues. A senior GOP lawmaker accused the White House of pursuing a government shutdown strategy in the shadow of an election.
Bargainers had reached a bipartisan agreement two nights ago on a bill to fund education and other programs, Clinton said, adding that the GOP leadership said, "Our special interests won't like this. I'm sorry."
The president said it was time for "everyone to calm down" and return to the bargaining table in hopes of wrapping up a budget deal.
Even before Clinton spoke, Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said it appeared the White House was intent on pursuing a government shutdown strategy.
"The White House has an agenda to try and get us to the point where we were in 1995," when parts of the government were twice shut down while the White House and GOP leaders clashed over budget priorities.
The back-and-forth came on the morning after Clinton vetoed legislation to finance the Treasury Department and congressional operations - a bill that would pave the way for a congressional pay raise. He said he said he took the step because the education bill had not yet been resolved to his satisfaction.
"With the largest student enrollment in history, the education budget ought to be our first priority. But it seems to be the last thing on the minds of the Republican leadership," he told reporters in the White House Rose Garden.
Republicans claimed they had been double-crossed by the veto, saying the president had long ago said he would sign the Treasury-Congress bill into law. Clinton denied it.
The rhetoric left the fate of the spending bills in doubt, as it did the length of the congressional session. "We just need to go back to work here and calm down and do what's right," Clinton said.
Because the fiscal year began on Oct. 1, Congress has been passing a series of short-term spending measures designed to keep the government running smoothly. Clinton has recently been insisting on one-day measures, but officials in both parties said there had been quiet discussions of a longer stopgap bill that would allow Congress to adjourn for the elections and return afterward to wrap up unfinished business.
Clinton made no mention of that. "I ask the Republican leadership to set aside partisanship, go back to negotiations and reach an honorable compromise," he said. "The final week of the election season is a perfect time to recall the basic bargain of our democracy," he said.
One of the sticking points in the huge education bill, which actually provides financing for a wide array of social programs, was a GOP effort to block implementation of proposed Occupational Health and Safety Administration regulations on repetitive stress injuries in the workplace. Bargainers had seemed to agree on a compromise that would stop the rules from taking effect until next June, but House GOP leaders balked.
Clinton made his comments to reporters on his way to Louisville, Ky., where he was campaigning for a Democratic challenger, Eleanor Jordan, who is attempting to defeat the author of the GOP workplace provision, Rep. Anne Northup.
Clinton's late-night veto sparked expressions of outrage from Republicans in Congress.
"There's a total element of distrust in this," Stevens said.
Stevens said Clinton's aim was to raise the public profile of the budget fight just days before the Nov. 7 presidential and congressional elections. Federal shutdowns in 1995 and 1996 ended up harming Republicans politically.
"If he vetoes another and another, it will come to the public's attention," Stevens said.
After days of hints from White House officials, Clinton vetoed the measure shortly before midnight. The bill covers the Treasury Department, the White House and Congress' own operations and would permit the pay raise. It also contains a GOP-sought phaseout of the 3 percent telephone tax.
"You can't deal with people who break their word," House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said.
Clinton issued the veto after Republicans - apparently in a surprise to the White House - rejected a tentative compromise on a separate $350 billion measure financing schools, labor and other social programs. Their main complaint was a provision on proposed administration regulations on workplace safety long sought by unions and opposed by some business groups.
"I cannot in good conscience sign a bill that funds the operation of the Congress and the White House before funding our classrooms, fixing our schools and protecting our workers," Clinton said in a written statement.
Under the Constitution, Clinton had until midnight to veto the measure or let it become law.
Clinton's action made it more likely that lawmakers will have to return after Election Day for a lame-duck session.
Clinton was betting that his action and the resulting tiff with Congress would not overshadow the campaign of Vice President Al Gore in the presidential race. He also was hoping that a partisan battle would not play into the hands of Gore's Republican opponent, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, who has spoken of restoring a more civil tone in Washington.
But the GOP seemed to believe that battling Clinton to the brink of Election Day was preferable to striking deals that might rankle core constituencies.
"We're not to be bullied," House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said.
Before Clinton's veto, GOP and White House aides were negotiating on the workplace safety provision. It was unclear how the veto would affect those talks.
The disputed provision would let the administration complete a rule - a decade in the making - aimed at reducing approximately 1.8 million annual repetitive-motion injuries. Unless blocked by the next president, it would take effect in June.
But Republicans said they wanted to alter the language to ensure that courts could not decide that the rule had taken effect when the Clinton administration finished it. They also wanted to ensure that Congress would not have to act as well because they said they feared that Democrats could block action with a Senate filibuster.
The $3,800 pay increase for lawmakers would boost their annual salaries to $145,100.
GOP leaders have put a $1 increase in the $5.15 hourly minimum wage in a $240 billion, 10-year tax bill. But Clinton has threatened to veto the tax measure because he says it is too generous to health maintenance organizations and doesn't do enough for school construction or people's health care costs.
The tentative deal on the labor-education bill included an extra $4.4 billion Clinton had won for hiring teachers, after-school centers, AIDS prevention and other programs.
