HOUSE PUTS STRINGS ON D.C. BUDGET

Republicans Target Social Issues In Approving Spending Plan

A partisan fight over adoption of the D.C. budget escalated last night as
the Republican-led House narrowly approved social and health mandates on
the District while endorsing the city's $4.7 billion budget and tax cuts.

The largely party-line vote was 208 to 206 in support of the mandates and
spending plan. Rep. Constance A. Morella (R-Md.) was one of eight
Republicans who joined the Democrats in opposing the measure. Other
Washington area lawmakers voted with their respective parties.

Among other things, the so-called social riders attached to the bill would
prohibit the city from legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes and from
supplying free, clean needles to drug addicts.

One measure would stop spending of city money on most abortions. Another
rider would ban city spending on health benefits for unmarried domestic
partners. The legislation also would allow Bell Atlantic Mobile to build
two cellular telephone towers in Rock Creek Park.

Clinton administration officials said last night that if the legislation,
which could be considered by the Senate as early as next week, comes to the
president with the riders attached, Clinton will be advised to veto it.

"This bill contains numerous provisions that would essentially trample on
the ability of the District of Columbia to conduct its business in a way
consistent with home rule. Therefore, we oppose it," said Linda Ricci,
spokeswoman for the White House budget office.

Lawmakers defended the drug restrictions as necessary to prevent the
District from returning to what Rep. Ernest J. Istook Jr. (R-Okla.) called
"the worst of the Marion Barry days, when the loose attitude toward illegal
drugs made the city the butt of late-night talk show jokes."

Istook, chairman of the Appropriations Committee subcommittee on the
District, accused Rep. James P. Moran (D-Va.), who led the opposition, of
promoting a "pro-drug agenda."

"Where do you draw the line?" Istook asked. "If you say it's okay for D.C.
to legalize marijuana, then what's next? Legalizing cocaine? Or heroin? Or
perhaps rape and murder?"

Moran and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said the sole issue was
whether the District would be able to decide how to spend its money.

"We would not impose these kind of restrictions on any of our local
governments that are being imposed on the District of Columbia," Moran said.

Norton added, "The District should not be asked to grovel to get its own
money."

The vote was difficult for Democratic lawmakers torn between supporting
many of the provisions in the spending plan and defending the District's
right to govern itself. Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.) asked his
Democratic colleagues to put aside the congressionally imposed mandates and
consider the bill's benefits.

The budget includes the largest tax cut in the city's history, central to
the District's goal of retaining and attracting residents and businesses.
It contains spending cuts and extra money for such programs as drug
treatment and cleaning up the Anacostia River. And it opens up
opportunities for D.C. high school graduates to attend some out-of-state
colleges and universities but pay in-state rates.

D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D), who had worked with local and
congressional leaders for many of those programs, said last night, "I am
deeply dismayed that the bill we sent to the Hill--a balanced budget that
included a tax cut, a surplus and critical investments in our neighborhoods
and young people--came back weighted down with attachments that are not in
the best interests of the residents of this city."

Williams, Clinton administration officials, District government leaders and
area Democratic lawmakers had fought to have the riders stripped out of the
city's proposed general fund spending plan for the budget year that begins
Oct. 1.

Earlier this summer, the House and Senate approved differing versions of
the proposed District budget bill, but a House-Senate conference committee
later added more restrictions.

The District budget would seem a relatively easy task for a Congress faced
with approving billions of dollars in spending plans for 13 agencies and
programs by Oct. 1. But D.C. officials say the city budget debate often
gives lawmakers an opportunity to make partisan points on their favorite
social issues at the expense of the city's residents.

Free needle exchange programs, for instance, operate in dozens of cities in
an effort to limit the spread of HIV infection. But many elected officials
say it is contradictory to offer addicts needles to use illegal drugs, a
practice that they say actually could increase drug use.

Lawmakers also objected to the city providing money to pay for petition
drives and lawsuits seeking to require voting representation in Congress
for the District.