CLINTON FAULTS CONGRESS OVER SPENDING IMPASSE

President Clinton charged yesterday that Congress is undermining efforts to
cut the supply line of cocaine from Colombia to the United States by
holding up passage of emergency funds, as the White House and GOP lawmakers
resumed their bitter fight over spending.

As Congress returned to work after an 11-day recess, the biting rhetoric
was the latest sign of the developing impasse over the budget: A major
package of aid for Colombia and funding for troops in Kosovo is already
hung up, and lawmakers warned of delays for other must-pass spending bills
for the coming year.

"Delays in this funding come at a time when cocaine production is
increasing in Colombia, where more than 80 percent of the cocaine on the
United States' streets comes from," Clinton said after his return from a
Moscow summit. "I think most of us have seen that democracy itself is under
great stress throughout the Andean region, in no small measure because of
the power of the drug traffickers."

GOP leaders, sensitive to suggestions they are frustrating the war on
drugs, insisted that they are doing everything they can to shake loose the
emergency funding. Still, the exchange showed that despite Republican hopes
of an orderly budget year, deliberations are veering off track – with
battles over emergency spending, Cuba policy, education and the environment
threatening to keep lawmakers pinned down up to the November elections.

This is potentially bad news for the GOP, which polls show is often most
popular when Congress is out of session. Lott has largely blamed the delays
on Democratic "obstructionist" tactics. Yet much of the problem stems from
disputes between House and Senate Republican leaders over policy and strategy.

The package of emergency spending for Colombian drug interdiction, troop
deployment in Kosovo and Hurricane Floyd relief has been held up for months
because of a simmering procedural dispute between Lott and House leaders.
An agriculture spending bill has become bogged down in the House in a feud
between Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) and rank-and-file Republicans over
whether to lift economic sanctions on Cuba. And a House-passed measure
providing tax relief to married couples has languished in the Senate for
months.

DeLay, who once predicted that Congress would swiftly approve fiscal 2001
spending bills well in advance of the fall campaign, said yesterday he is
beginning to doubt that lawmakers will finish their work this summer. If
that's the case, then Republicans may be looking at one last round of
year-end negotiations with Clinton that would give the lame-duck White
House maximum leverage.

"I'm losing some of my confidence, frankly, because we're having a hard
time with our own members on these bills," DeLay said in an interview.
"Every day that goes by when we're not doing these appropriations bills
means we're pushing into October."

Glen Bolger, a GOP pollster, said many Republicans keenly remember how they
stayed in town until very close to the 1986 elections to negotiate over the
budget and lost their majority in the Senate. "What's important is members
get home to campaign," Bolger said.

Toward that end, Republican leaders are bracing for what is likely to be a
bruising and exhausting mission to advance the 13 annual spending bills and
pass the few other pieces of legislation, such as a bill overhauling the
bankruptcy law, that have sufficient bipartisan support.

House GOP leaders said they will employ the same strategy they used last
year, which relied on passing spending bills on a strict party-line vote
and assuming they would have to work out their differences with the
Democrats in the end. Given Democratic intransigence, they said they have
no other choice.

However, Democrats complained that Republicans are ensuring a protracted
battle in the fall by pressing for reductions in some key domestic
programs. Already, Republican leaders are struggling to pass the
legislative branch appropriations bill – normally a snap –
because of what many lawmakers deem as inadequate funding for the Capitol
Police.

Meanwhile, Clinton is threatening to veto the huge labor, health and human
services and education spending bill, which is headed for a vote this week
on the House floor. The measure provides $1 billion less than the
president's request for teacher training and hiring and cuts $600 million
from Head Start.

"We are going down the same road we've gone in past years, which is
unfortunate because it's a very chaotic policymaking environment," said
Scott Lilly, the Democratic staff director on the House Appropriations
Committee.

Clearly, the differences over the emergency spending package pose the
thorniest problem for the Republicans for now. Yesterday, the Republican
chairmen of the House Appropriations and National Security committees wrote
Lott expressing "deep concern" that his opposition to a free-standing
emergency spending bill might damage military readiness and troop morale.

Lott said he favors the spending for Kosovo and Colombia but believes the
version approved by the House earlier this year is too costly, and that the
necessary funds can be included in the military, foreign aid and
agriculture spending bills. He said he is looking for an "earlier vehicle"
that could move the money for Colombia.

Lott cautioned Clinton that he risks losing important GOP support for the
package "if he gets too critical," while another senior leader complained
that Clinton's rhetoric is not helpful. "He can go blow his wind out all he
wants, as far as I'm concerned," Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman
Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) told reporters.

Stevens and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) suggested yesterday that the
Senate might have to put off final action on legislation granting China
permanent normal trade relations. But GOP leaders have indicated that the
legislation would likely be passed before the July 4 recess.