News Digest
:
Bush ‘family leave’ veto sustained
WASHINGTON — The House on
Wednesday easily sustained President
Bush’s veto of a bill requiring many
businesses to give their workers time
off in family emergencies. Demo
crats pledged to redouble efforts to
make “family leave” a major issue in
the campaign for the White House.
The vote on the politically charged
bill was 258-169, well short of the
two-thirds majority needed to over
ride Bush. It was the 33rd consecutive,
time Bush has made his veto stick.
Supporters of the family-leave bill
said the veto would reverberate in
next month’s presidential election.
Democrat Bill Clinton supports the
measure; Bush has promoted “family
values” as a campaign theme.
“This issue frames this campaign,”
Rep. Patricia Schroeder said. “Yes, it
really is about who is for families.”
horty-two Democrats deserted their
party and voted to sustain Bush’s
veto. Thirty-eight Republicans voted
to override the president.
The measure was strongly opposed
by lobbyists for small business. Op
ponents pointed to Bush’s eleventh
hour alternative, $500 million in tax
credits for businesses that grant the
unpaid leave to workers.
“There’s a better, more effective
way,” House Minority Leader Bob
Michel said.
The House voted overwhelmingly
-it
It is one of the things that will change in a new
administration. It is one of the things that the
Clinton campaign is committed to change and that
the Congress in great majority is committed to
support.
— Thomas Foley
Speaker of the House
—----- 91 -
as expected to override another Bush
veto of a bill that would slap condi
tions on renewal next year of China’s
trade status with the United States.
Most-favored nation status imparts
the lowest available tariffs on a
country’s exports to America.
The vote was 345-74, well over the
two-thirds needed.
The veto battles were among the
major bills to be acted upon before the
102nd Congress adjourns early next
week.
Since the new federal fiscal year
begins Thursday with most of the 13
annual spending bills unfinished,
Congress passed the emergency bill
to give it more time to finish those
spending bills.
Legislators also sent Bush a $688
million measure that helps finance
the District of Columbia’s govern
ment after removing a provision al
lowing local tax collections to be used
for abortions. Bush had vetoed the bill
tarlicr in the day because he opposed
the abortion provision.
The familv leave bill would have
required businesses with 50 or more
employees to give workers up to 12
weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave,
with full health benefits, to care for a
sick family member or for a newborn
or newly adopted child.
The Senate voted 68-31 last week
to override Bush. He so far has a
perfect record of making his vetoes
stick. The Senate vote marked the
first time in his presidency that body
has voted to override.
House Speaker Thomas Foley
called Bush’s veto “a very bad mis
laxc Dui aireauy was looking ahead
to the bill’s prospects if Clinton, a
supporter of the bill, is elected presi
dent.
“It is one of the things that will
change in a new administration,”
Foley said. “It is one of the things that
the Clinton campaign is committed to
change and that the Congress in great
majority is committed to support.”
“We thought the election politics
would help us,”one Democratic strat
egist said. “On the other hand, it could
be hurting us.”
Major tax legislation was also pend
ing in the final days of Congress.
A Senate-House conference com
mittee was to take up the issue after
the Senate voted 70-29 to approve its
S35 billion catch-all bill Tuesday
night. The House’s version is about
half that size.
Both include a portion for poor
cities, through business incentives in
depressed areas, but the urban aid
portion was dwarfed by added items
such as expanded individual retire -
mentaccounts and business tax breaks.
The House and Senate sent Bush a
compromise $12 billion measure fi
nancing land programs that leaves
mostly intact the 120-year-old law
that gives miners inexpensive access
to federal lands.
Quiet spending put Perot in ‘October surprise’ position
WASHINGTON — Ross Pcroi
continued to spend millions after he
dropped from the presidential race in
July, maintaining a 50-state organiza
tion and quietly preparing campaign
advertising.
Those expenditures — S4 million
in August alone — have put Perot in
position for an “October surprise”
return if he chooses to make that move
Thursday.
But they also underline a stark
contrast between what the Texas bil
1 lionaire has said publicly and what he
has done privately since ending his
independent bid for the White House.
At the same time he was spending
the money, Perot was declaring that
he wouldn’t play a spoiler’s role, that
the chancesof his returning were com
parable to the likelihood that “a hur
ricane will go straight up in the air
today” or “lightning going to strike
here in two seconds.”
“It smacksof double dealing,” said
Stephen Hess, a political analyst with
“He said he was leaving the race,
not ‘I’m leaving the race but I’m
going to be creating some 30 ads and
getting my name on ballots just in
case I decide to come back, Hess
said.
But Murphy Martin, a close Perot
associate who has helped in recent
weeks to prepare ads, disagreed.
“We’ve been saying all along we
wanted to keep our options open,”
Martin said.
Campaign finance reports filed
with the government show Perot has
spent $18.5 million —$16.1 million
of it his own money — since first
mentioning the possibility of an inde
pendent campaign in March.
More than half that total has been
spent since he withdrew: $6.6 million
in July and $4 million in August.
That fact is not lost on the political
professionals who worked on his cam
paign before it disbanded and who
now wonder whether Perot was plan
ning an October surprise all the time.
“Perot doesn’t throw money away.
If he was paying after he dropped out
to get himself on the ballot in all those
states, then he clearly had something
in mind,”said Elizabeth Maas, Perot’s
former director of press operations.
*vHe is unhappy where he sits on
the stage right now. I don’t think he
wants to go out as the guy who came
in, got everyone excited and then
quit,” said Sal Russo, a California
consultant who worked briefly for
Perot.
Much of the $4 million Perot spent
in August went to pay bills he accrued
before he dropped out or the salaries
of campaign consultants he agreed 10
continue paying through November.
But scattered among the 400pages
of his latest Federal Election Com
mission report are expenditures that
have helped keep Perot in the spot
light since his withdrawal, such as
financing the volunteer effort to get
his name on all 50 state ballots. Some
of his slate coordinators have contin
ued to be paid.
Also among the expenditures were
S7.000 to Martin, a longtime Dallas
Parking
Continued from Page 1
The project, now in its second
phase, will include building a pe
destrian overpass and a new 10th
Street overpass, said A1 Imig, Lin
coln deputy city engineer. Phase
one of the construction project
began last week on waterways
under Avery Avenue, he said, and
will be completed this week.
Construction was scheduled to
begin today on the pedestrian over
pass which will run besidethe 10th
Street overpass. That overpass
will be completed in April, Imig
said.
After the pedestrian overpass is
completed, the deteriorating 80
year-old 10th Street overpass will
be replaced, he said.
During the final construction
phase of the 10th Street overpass,
the pedestrian overpass will be the
only access to campus from North
10th Street, he said.
When construction is finished,
the north end of the^Oth Street
overpass will be in thesame place
it is now.
The south side of the overpass
will curve to Ninth Street, Imig
said, and will be adjacent to the I
180 bridge going into downtown
Lincoln.
Bob Carpenter, UNL manager
of facility planning, said 10th Street
would be restructured because of
the new overpass. The existing
10th Street will be converted to an
internal campus street, he said.
The entire project will slow
traffic, Cacak said, but it will be
beneficial.
“When it’s all said and done,
traffic will flow better around cam
pus.M
Billionaire gibes women reporters
DALLAS — Ross Perot,
whose relations with reporters are
testy at best, complained to an
NBC journalist that the reason
women reporters do negative sto
ries is “they’re trying to prove
their manhood,” a newspaper re
ported today.
The Washington Post reported
that Perot made the comment to
Jim Cummins, Dallas bureau chief
for NBC News, as he left a studio
where he’d been interviewed for
the “Today” show.
Perot complained to Cummins
about “Today” show host Katie
Couric and correspondent Lisa
Myers, who angered him with a
story that preceded his segment on
the show, the Post reported. Bryant
Gumbel interviewed Perot on
Monday’s show.
Cummins did not immediately
return a call this morning. Perot
spokeswoman Sharon Holman was
not immediately available. She
declined comment to the Post.
television personality and sports an
nouncer, and $9,389 to an Irving,
Texas, television production studio.
The report lists the expenses, both
dated Aug. 21, for media placement
and media production. Martin and the
studio declined to discuss q^actly what
the money was for.
But Martin acknowledged he has
continued working for Perot since the
withdrawal, converting raw footage
shot by former campaign profession
als into usable ads and in some cases
creating new ads.
“We continue to update and keep
him armed should he exercise the
option. We hope to have some mate
rial for whatever reason he would
need it,” he said.
EPA accuses White House
of delaying new regulations
NEW YORK — Seventy-six new
regulations prepared by the Environ
mental Protection Agency arc being
held up by the While House, some in
violation of congressional deadlines,
according to a confidential EPA re
port.
The stalled regulations include
some of the major provisions of the
1990 Clean Air Act intended to con
trol smog, reduce acid rain, protect
the ozone layer and reduce toxic air
pollutants.
“The administration is holding up
numerous rules, which is illegal, and
which is not consistent with the goal
of protecting human health and the
environment,” said a senior EPA offi
r —-___-_
cial who spoke on condition of ano
nymity.
The report says that eight regula
tions are currently being blocked by
the White House even though con
gressional deadlines for their comple
tion have passed. A copy of the Sept
22 report was obtained by The Asso
ciated Press.
Among the blocked regulations is
the set of rules governing the trading
of air pollution emissions, a program
touted for relying on markets to curb
acid rain. The rules were due May 15.
Another regulation that missed its
deadline would require tighter emis
sion controls on new incinerators and
chemical plants.
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