No agenda yet for lame-duck congressional session

With the presidential election still in limbo, congressional leaders and their top aides are taking a wait-and-see approach to setting an agenda for next week's reconvening of the lame duck session. The existing continuing resolution--which covers agencies funded by the unfinished FY2001 Labor-HHS, Commerce- Justice-State, Legislative Branch and Treasury-Postal spending bills--expires at midnight next Tuesday. Although House members are not expected back in Washington until Monday afternoon, and senators at noon Tuesday, aides to both House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said Tuesday that GOP leaders will not know until early next week whether to pass a short-term CR or series of CRs or whether they will need a longer CR. The latter could last anywhere from until the election is decided to when the 107th Congress convenes. "I don't think we'll know until Friday or early next week," said Hastert's spokesman, while Lott's spokeswoman said, "We won't know for sure until they all get back in town." In fact, the chiefs of staff to Hastert, House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, and Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, all are in Rome for a conference hosted by the moderate Republican Ripon Society. Appropriators, however, made it abundantly clear they have finished their work, and now are waiting on marching orders from Republican leaders on final sticking points, such as the ergonomics rule and immigration. From across the aisle, a House Democratic leadership aide stated unequivocally, "We'd like to resolve this as fast as humanly possible and get out." The aide said the administration has not yet signaled whether President Clinton would sign a longer-term CR, and emphasized that if another CR is required, "it won't be six months or anything." White House Press Secretary Jake Siewert said Tuesday the administration plans to focus on the "achievable" when Congress returns, holding out hope that it can resurrect a deal on the President's education initiatives. "We think there's no reason we can't memorialize the agreement we worked out before we left on education," he said. Siewert also said the White House would be willing to work with Congress on Medicare and tax items "where there is bipartisan support," in addition to "relatively non- controversial" tax credits and cuts. Siewert said the White House wants to be flexible with Congress, but has not decided whether Clinton would sign only daily continuing resolutions as he had insisted upon prior to Election Day. Asked whether Clinton would refuse to sign a CR through the end of his term, Siewert urged Congress to complete its work promptly, suggesting it could wrap up within two weeks or less. "I don't see really any reason to get into that right now because Congress has indicated it would come back and finish its work," Siewert said of a possible CR that would extend beyond Clinton's presidency.