With a last-minute press by President Bush for wavering support, the House moved toward a vote Thursday on the balanced-budget constitutional amendment that both sides declared too close to call.
"It's very, very, very close," House Speaker Tom Foley said."There are members who are still struggling to make a determination how they will vote," Foley said. "Many members really are torn."
Bush summoned House members from both parties to breakfast at the White House for a final bit of lobbying before he departed for Panama and the Earth Summit in Brazil. Bush was seeking the two-thirds majority needed to send the constitutional amendment to the Senate and eventually to the states for ratification.
"The people want this done to get this deficit under control once and for all," Bush said.
After Thursday's White House session, one undecided vote, Rep. Robin Tallon, D-S.C., said he was leaning toward voting for the amendment, even as he acknowledged "I have personal concerns this could be very dangerous." Tallon said if the amendment is sent to the states, he would urge his state to reject it.
One of the chief architects of the balanced-budget amendment, conservative Rep. Charles Stenholm, D-Texas, shaded his earlier prediction that the amendment would prevail.
"It's looking close, but I'm feeling good," Stenholm declared as debate began.
House Democratic leaders were trying to nail down enough undecided lawmakers to block the two-thirds majority.
Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., has said the amendment would fall short of the 67 votes it needs in the Senate, though Majority Leader George Mitchell said the Senate outcome was in doubt.
Under unusual House procedures in place, four possible versions of the amendment were being debated in a prearranged order. Lawmakers could vote for as many as they liked, but the last one passed would be the only survivor.
Whatever the outcome, the political battle encapsulated the failure of a divided government to either raise taxes or cut spending, or both, in order to rein in deficits that approach $400 billion this year.