Daschle: Appropriations veto threats are serious

President Clinton is serious about vetoing appropriations legislation, notably the fiscal 1999 Agriculture spending bill, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. said today.

Senate Democrats will offer a motion to recommit the Agriculture appropriations bill if it does not include sufficient emergency assistance to farmers, Daschle said, adding that he expects that motion to fail and for the bill to pass and be sent to the White House. "It will be vetoed," he said, noting he had discussed the Agriculture appropriations bill with Clinton as recently as Wednesday.

Clinton made it clear the bill must provide sufficient aid to farmers for him to sign it, Daschle said, adding that Clinton is prepared to veto other spending bills as well, including the Treasury-Postal funding measure.

The minority leader said while he normally is in favor of finding offsets to pay for emergency spending, he believes the upcoming supplemental spending package fits the definition of emergency spending and he questioned whether it should be offset.

"In this case, this is necessary because it is the only way we can get the money out," he told reporters. House GOP conservatives and moderates are still circulating a lengthy list of offsets for the supplemental spending package.

In a related development, Senate Appropriations Chairman Stevens also left open the possibility of putting the supplemental spending package into the omnibus bill, rather than moving it separately.

Meanwhile, House appropriators would like to resolve the remaining issues on the Agriculture and Treasury-Postal bills in an effort to bring those conference reports to the floor later today. For that to occur, the House will first have to approve a so-called martial law resolution that would waive a one-day layover period before appropriations conference reports can be brought to the floor. In addition, the House Rules Committee might meet later today on a rule for the contentious Labor-HHS funding measure in an effort to bring that bill to the floor.