Supplemental bill continues to divide GOP

Deep divisions between House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, and GOP appropriators re-emerged Tuesday, as Armey said Republicans will insist that supplemental defense spending be offset with cuts and appropriators appeared headed for conference having decided to only try to pay for disaster relief spending.

"The House position is clear ... we need to have offsets," Armey told reporters today. "It shouldn't be that hard."

However, sources indicated that, faced with strong opposition from Senate Appropriations Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, House appropriators will go to conference insisting the disaster funding be offset, but not the defense spending. "We met the Senate halfway and they met us halfway," a House Republican aide said today.

Stevens has said there is no way he can accept non-defense offsets for the defense spending. But Armey said Stevens "feels strongly" about meeting an early May deadline for the supplemental, so he may be willing to accept the House position. However, if appropriators adopt Armey's position, "I don't know how we get out of conference," the House Republican aide said.

Another House GOP source said Armey understands the defense money cannot be offset. "Both he and his staff know that is not going to happen," the source said, adding, "They've been in all of the meetings."

Armey and appropriators have clashed frequently in the past, and the majority leader and House Appropriations Chairman Bob Livingston, R-La., are both contenders for the speakership should Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., leave the House to run for president.

Meanwhile, Armey again strongly differed with Stevens on spending for the International Monetary Fund. Stevens has said he wants the House to consider the IMF supplemental spending soon, but Armey said the House will continue to move slowly. He said if an IMF supplemental spending bill comes to the floor, it would have conditions that are "more substantial" than those contained in the bill produced by the House Banking Committee.

Armey said he remains "very concerned" about the IMF and is not convinced a supplemental spending bill for the fund should be passed. Asked about a commitment Stevens said he believes he received from House GOP leaders that the IMF bill would come to the floor, Armey said, "There was no mention of a date certain, so there was no cause for my ears to perk up."

On another budget issue, Armey applauded the budget plan being prepared by House Budget Chairman Kasich, saying the plan--which may contain more than $100 billion in spending cuts--is a "much better set of priorities" than the Clinton administration budget.

Asked about the need to change budget rules to allow discretionary spending cuts to be used for tax cuts, Armey said if the substance of the plan is developed, the procedure would fall into line.

Although he called the Kasich budget an "exciting and intriguing point of departure," Armey hedged his bet somewhat. He said he wants the budget to be "as tough as it can be and still get 218 votes." Some House Republicans have said they would have trouble supporting the Kasich budget.