Senate leader rejects debt ceiling increase on supplemental

A day after the Senate gave quick approval to a $450 billion debt limit increase, Democrats stepped up the heat on House Republicans Wednesday to follow suit and move a clean debt limit bill through the House.

The House GOP leadership so far has been reluctant to do that, instead preferring to use the fiscal 2002 supplemental bill currently in a House-Senate conference as a vehicle. But Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said Wednesday he has no intention of letting the debt limit be part of the final deal on the supplemental, saying that "virtually under no circumstances" would he allow the legislation to be joined together.

Asked whether he would be willing to allow the debt limit to go with the supplemental if Republicans were to give Democrats a higher limit on fiscal 2003 spending-an idea that has been floated by various parties as a possible alternative-Daschle expressed only pessimism.

"I don't think we can get a budget deal anymore" on the supplemental, he said. "We lost that opportunity last week." That was when Republicans blocked an attempt by Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., to attach to the supplemental a fiscal 2003 budget cap of $768 billion.

On the other side of the Capitol, House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., sent a letter to Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., Wednesday demanding that Republican leaders schedule a clean vote on raising the debt ceiling before the June 28 default deadline set by the Bush administration.

"With only two short legislative weeks for this House to act, reconcile with the Senate and place a debt measure on the president's desk, I call on you to immediately schedule an up-or-down vote in the House on a short-term debt measure to avoid financial calamity," the letter states.

Speaking with reporters, Gephardt again said he would support a one-month debt limit increase and renewed his call for a budget summit to re-evaluate the nation's fiscal priorities. Asked if House Democrats would support a clean debt limit vote, Gephardt said, "You never know until you run the vote."

Meanwhile, the House is scheduled Wednesday afternoon to appoint conferees to the fiscal 2002 supplemental spending bill. Democrats are considering a motion to instruct conferees to accept the Senate's higher spending levels on homeland security, a Democratic aide said, but no final decision had been made at presstime.

The Senate version of the supplemental contains nearly $2.6 billion more in homeland security funds-most of which the White House has said it opposes-than the House-passed measure.