WASHINGTON -- President Clinton has agreed to a small across-the-board cut in agency spending, House Speaker Dennis Hastert said Wednesday, and Republicans hope to quickly complete bargaining on a near-$400 billion budget package.
Hastert had two late-night telephone calls with Clinton, who is in Turkey, finally agreeing with him on a 0.38 percent reduction in agency spending planned for this year. A fight over the proposal has been the major remaining hindrance to completing a budget deal.Two weeks ago, Clinton vetoed the GOP's proposed 1 percent cut as mindless and excessive. But Republicans looking for ways to pay for the budget package continued to insist on an across-the-board reduction to help nail down conservative votes.
To make the agreement more palatable to the White House, Republicans agreed to add $100 million to a widely popular bill extending federal benefits for disabled people who return to work, said a GOP leadership aide.
Because many Democrats have strongly opposed across-the-board reductions, it was unclear how quickly a final agreement could be reached. Bargaining between the two sides resumed this morning.
Even as Hastert was describing his conversations with Clinton to reporters, House Democratic leaders were meeting with White House officials. Afterward, House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., said White House officials were "looking at" an across-the-board reduction but added, "It's in a state of flux, a state of negotiation.
In exchange for the across-the-board cut, Democrats want Republicans to agree that any proceeds from federal settlement with the tobacco industry be put into the Social Security and Medicare trust funds to strengthen their solvency, said Rep. David Obey, D-Wis.
But Rep. Bill Young, R-Fla., the House Appropriations Committee chairman, said, "That's at the leadership level. My direction is not to accept that."
GOP bargainers left a Tuesday night negotiating session with White House budget chief Jack Lew after Lew refused to accept GOP demands for a 0.42 percent reduction.
This angered them because Hastert had said that in repeated telephone conversations with Clinton in recent days, the president had never ruled out a small across-the-board cut. About two hours after Tuesday's bargaining ended, Hastert called Clinton.
The 0.38 percent cut would save about $1.5 billion, a small sum in federal budget terms. But Republicans want it for its political symbolism as a sign of frugality.