President Clinton put Congress on notice Saturday that he won't give up an assault weapons ban as the price to revive the crime bill that is stalled on Capitol Hill.
A Republican leader said the gun-control provision should be dropped from the crime package and complained that the legislation had been gutted of its toughest provisions and loaded with excessive spending.Anxious to resolve the dispute, Clinton urged Congress to put off its planned August vacation if necessary and "stay in Washington until they get this job done."
"The crime plaguing ordinary Americans is not about to take a vacation," he said pointedly in his weekly radio address.
Clinton's chief of staff, Leon Panetta, pledged to "keep the heat on the Congress until they get that crime bill passed."
Democratic and Republican leaders met in the Capitol on Saturday to discuss their differences.
Rep. David Bonior, D-Mich., said afterward the American public was outraged and put the blame "at the hands of the Republican leadership in conjunction with the special interests."
In a separate news conference, House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich said the ban on assault weapons should be handled as a separate bill. He said the Republicans also demanded that "social pork" be dropped. And he said they want tougher provisions on notifying communities about the release of sexual predators from prison and keeping mandatory sentences for drug dealers.
"We've extended our hand" at a time of trouble for the administration, said Gingrich. "We can more than make up for any liberal Democrats they lose" from making these changes.
The assault weapons ban is a key sticking point in the $33 billion crime package that hit a roadblock last week in the House, where legislators refused to bring the bill up for a final vote.
The bill also would put 100,000 more police on the streets, build more prisons and jails, finance crime-prevention programs and require life imprisonment for certain three-time violent offenders.
It was sidetracked by a diverse group of legislators that included foes of the gun-control provision, Republicans who said it contained wasteful spending, and liberals and blacks who opposed provisions expanding use of the death penalty.
The White House says it is up to Congress to find a way to revive the legislation, but Clinton was adamant that the assault weapons ban is non-negotiable.
"Let me be clear about this," he said in the radio address. "The crime bill must ban the assault weapons that have no place on our streets."
Attorney General Janet Reno said later the weapons ban had been approved by each house of Congress and deserves a final vote. "This is the right thing to do," she said.
In the GOP response to Clinton's radio address, Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa complained that the crime bill had been "gutted behind closed doors." He said its toughest provisions had been replaced with "pork-barrel projects and spending for dance classes, midnight basketball, and arts and crafts."
"While the president supported this watered-down bill, it wasn't tough enough for the American people," he said.