Congress to keep government open at least another week

House and Senate leaders conceded Wednesday that Congress would not be able to complete its work by the end of this week, and prepared to bring their members back for at least another week of votes.

Asked when Congress would adjourn for the year, House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, told reporters, "When we're done."

GOP leaders had hoped to coordinate an ambitious push to pass all of the remaining fiscal 2001 spending bills by Saturday, when the current continuing resolution expires. But they said the death of Rep. Bruce Vento, D-Minn., threw off the schedule. Services for Vento are scheduled Friday in St. Paul.

House Republican Conference Chairman J.C. Watts of Oklahoma said Republicans would contact the White House about another CR to keep the government running for an additional week. The measure would come up in the House Thursday. Watts said he would not be surprised if Congress were in session through Monday, Oct. 23, although he said leaders hoped to wrap up their work by the end of next week.

House leaders planned to send members home this Friday and Saturday, although they hoped to schedule a vote Thursday on the Labor-HHS appropriations measure.

House GOP leaders blamed Democrats in the Senate, as well as President Clinton, for holding up the appropriations process.

"The Senate majority leader cannot follow regular order in bringing bills through the Senate," said House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, who accused Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., of obstructionism.

DeLay said Clinton was "addicted to spending," and that members of the administration "keep moving the bar" in negotiations.

GOP leaders said they will seek a third continuing resolution to extend appropriations work through Saturday, Oct. 21. But Daschle indicated the administration might not be amenable to a week's extension, saying, "It's time to look at shorter CRs."

Daschle did not say how many days a shorter CR might cover "because we aren't sure how much time we need." More certain is the number of FY2001 appropriations bills still outstanding; with the Interior spending bill signed today, 10 appropriations bills remain in various stages of the process.

The Transportation spending bill sailed through Congress last week, and is awaiting Clinton's signature. The Agriculture appropriations bill was slated for a vote Wednesday in the House, which also voted 315-98 to override Clinton's veto of the Energy and Water spending bill. Daschle said the Senate could also adopt the Treasury-Postal/Legislative Branch appropriations conference report, now that money has been added for the IRS and counterterrorism programs.

But no agreement has been reached under which Senate Democrats would agree to let the Senate consider the VA-HUD spending bill. The District of Columbia spending bill was being conferenced Wednesday, while congressional negotiators and administration officials are meeting on the Commerce-Justice-State and Labor-HHS spending measures. The Foreign Operations conference report remains stalled over international family planning language.

Daschle said the emerging Labor-HHS conference report, which would fully fund the president's FY2001 budget request of $106 billion, nevertheless is $3 billion short of what Clinton wanted for his education priorities, such as hiring 100,000 new teachers, teacher accountability, school construction and modernization, and reducing class sizes.

Commenting on GOP leaders' strategy of sending the Labor-HHS bill to the White House for a likely veto, Daschle said: "My answer is, bring it on. Let's have that fight."

Daschle was equally aggressive on the possible Senate override of the Energy and Water spending bill. Daschle said Senate Democrats not only "have more than enough votes to sustain a veto," but that "if Republicans want to play games like this, they shouldn't count on our cooperation" on other legislation.