House and Senate conferees met today for an hour to discuss the fiscal 1997 supplemental appropriations bill, but adjourned until 5 p.m. without resolving major differences.
Senate Appropriations Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said Congress should approve the bill with an automatic continuing resolution provision, let President Clinton veto it, and decide where to go from there. Senate Appropriations ranking member Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., said he strenuously opposes the automatic CR, and that Clinton has assured him he will veto a bill with that provision. But House Appropriations Chairman Livingston said he wants a bill the president will sign.
Most Appropriations subcommittees reported few major differences on funding issues. A House Appropriations spokeswoman said the House Rules Committee will take up the bill Wednesday if the conference finishes today, and that the two chambers will take it up Thursday. But Stevens said he is "not confident" the conference can complete work today. Stevens also said Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt has informed him the administration will not budge on several provisions, including road rights-of-way on federal lands, that Stevens considers important.
Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., today said if Clinton vetoes the supplemental because it includes an automatic CR, Clinton should not expect the measure to "be popped right back to him" minus the CR provision.
Lott said he "may not be inclined to move that quickly" to send a new version of the bill back to the White House. He told reporters that if Congress and the president cannot work out a compromise on the CR provision -- which would fund government operations at 100 percent of FY97 levels into FY98 if FY98 appropriations bills are not enacted in time -- then "we'll get to it when we get back" from the Memorial Day recess.
Although the supplemental has been referred to as emergency legislation primarily to provide disaster relief, Lott noted disaster funds "won't be cut off if we don't enact [the supplemental] immediately. This is not an emergency in the sense that somebody's not going to get their funds" if the bill is not signed before the Memorial Day recess.
Lott said he is willing to negotiate a compromise with Clinton and suggested Congress could work out CR language in the supplemental or come up with a free-standing CR bill the president would sign.
Administration officials were meeting today with Senate Commerce Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, the authors of the automatic CR. Although Lott said Clinton's "veto threat doesn't scare me," he conceded he lacks the votes to override a veto. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., emerged from a bipartisan leadership meeting with Clinton this morning, saying they had a "very positive" discussion with the president on the issue.
"We're trying to find some common ground that would be basically a commitment to keep it open, whether that's by signing the continuing resolution or by some other device," he said.
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