==__ News Digest
Edited by Michelle Gamer
Friday, March 29,1996 Page 2
Congress passes bills to combat deficit
Clinton to approve line-item veto
WASHINGTON—Congress gave
the president power Thursday to cut
government spending by scrapping
specific programs with a line-item veto,
although President Clinton will have
to win re-election before he can use it.
Fulfilling a GOP “Contract With
America” promise, the House followed
the Senate in approving the measure,
which marks a historic shift in the
balance of power between the execu
tive and legislative branches.
Since the nation’s founding, the
president has been forced to approve
or reject legislation in its entirety.
“The Republican Congress has done
something that no previous Congress
has been able to accomplish since the
first line-item veto proposal was intro
duced in the 1870s,” said House Gov
ernment Reform and Oversight Com
mittee Chairman William Clingcr, R
Pa., who helped forge the House-Sen
ate compromise plan.
House Democrats later complained
about the parliamentary tactics used
by majority Republicans in sending
the bill to the White House.
Opponents characterized it as a
dangerous ceding to the executive
branch of Congress’ power ofthe purse.
“This is fundamentally unwise and it
manifests a fundamental disrespect of
our own duties,” Rep. David Skaggs,
D-Colo., said.
But constitutional considerations
that have blocked passage in the past
were overcome by the demand for new
tools to combat the federal deficit.
Giving the president authority to
pencil out individual items from spend
ing bills allows him to kill low priority
or pork-barrel projects.
“The buck will finally stop at the
president’s desk,” said Rep. Jim
Bunning, R-Ky. “We are going to give
him the opportunity,” he said, “to end
the era of pork-barrel spending.”
The bill also allows the president to
cancel tax benefits targeted to groups
of 100 or fewer beneficiaries and elimi
nate spending for new entitlement pro
grams that Congress might establish
or additions to the food stamp pro
gram.
Clinton, like previous presidents a
strong supporter of the line-item veto
concept, said the bill would ensure
that our public resources are put to the
best possible uses during these times
of tight budgets.”
But the president wouldn’t be able
to use this new power until Jan. 1, a
result ofan agreement between Clinton
and his certain opponent in the presi
dential elections this fall, Senate Ma
jority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan. In a
telephone conversation last week, the
two decided that the law should not go
into effect until the new year, so it
wouldn’t become an issue during the
political campaign.
The House defeated, 256-159, an
attempt to make it effective immedi
ately.
Dole, too, voiced strong support
for the bill: “Line-item veto seems to
be the one thing that all modern presi
dents agree on,” he said shortly before
the Senate voted 69-31 to pass it
Wednesday. “The president, regard
less of party, should be able to elimi
nate unnecessary pork-barrel projects
from large appropriations bills.”
Debt-limit legislation clears
WASHINGTON — Legislation
raising the ceiling on the national debt
to $5.5 trillion—enough for another
year and a half of deficit spending—
cleared Congress on Thursday.
GOP leaders packaged the politi
cally distasteful measure with several
planks of their “Contract With
America” and it passed the House by
a 328-91 vote. The Senate later OK’d
it with an unrecorded voice vote.
President Clinton’s signature is
needed by midnight Friday to avert a
first-ever federal default. The Trea
sury Department has been juggling
accounts since the government
bumped against the present $4.9 tril
lion last fall.
“The president’s prepared to act...
the minute the legislation’s available,”
White House spokesman Mike
McCurry said.
Meanwhile, House and Senate law
makers reported progress — but no
overall deal — as they worked in
marathon sessions for a compromise
on spending legislation appropriating
roughly $ 160 billion to dozens of fed
eral agencies and departments for the
six months remaining in fiscal 1996.
The unrelated provisions in the
debt-limit bill include an increase in
Social Security benefits for working
recipients and new authority for small
businesses to challenge federal regu
lations in court.
The Social Security measure raises
the current limit on outside earnings
fromSl l,520to$12,500thisyearand
to $30,000 by 2002. Recipients be
tween the ages of 65 and 69 lose $1 in
benefits for each $3 they earn above
the limit.
Democrats delayed the debt bill
for several testy hours with an effort to
attach a 90-cent increase in the mini
mum wage.
Republicans defeated them on a
procedural motion. They argued an
increase in the minimum wage would
violate the unfunded mandate law en
acted last year. It bars the federal
government from imposing rules or
regulations on local governments with
out compensating them for their cost.
“We’re going to bring it back and
back and back and back until we fi
nally prevail for America’s families
and workers,” said House Minority
Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo.
News
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Mi ■ '
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Israel examines security agency
■ r
JERUSALEM—Putting the internal workings of the Shin Bet under
a rare spotlight, a government inquiry said Thursday that mismanage
ment and carelessness at the top-secret security agency exposed Yitzhak
Rabin to attack by Jewish extremists.
In a scathing report bound to fuel efforts to make Shin Bet more
accountable, the inquiry found that the organization was primarily to
blame for failing to prevent the prime minister’s Nov. 4 assassination.
Issued a day after assassin Yigal Amir was convicted and sentenced
to life imprisonment, the report confirmed the widespread impression
that the assassination was the result of a security breakdown that could
have been prevented.
The Shin Bet failed to translate abundant intelligence warnings of a
possible Jewish extremist attack on the prime minister into better
security at the rally where Rabin was shot, the commission said. The
parking lot where Rabin was murdered was not properly secured and
bodyguards were not looking for an Israeli attacker.
Seattle officials to shoot sea lions
SEATTLE — Like gluttonous courtiers around a medieval banquet
table, fat California sea lions have been lolling about at Seattle’s Ballard
Locks, gorging themselves on the steelhead salmon struggling to make
their way upstream.
Now the state is going to put an end to the royal pig-out.
With the fish runs depleted, and much of the blame put on the portly
pinnipeds, the state got federal approval earlier this month to shoot two
of the more voracious sea lions, a move that has drawn animal-rights
protests and pleas to the governor.
“Nobody wants to kill sea lions, but this is just a matter of priorities,”
said Kathleen South of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. “It’s
just reached a very critical point.”
The sea lions are protected by federal law but are neither a threatened
nor endangered species.
Ibuprofen may prevent Alzheimer’s
SAN FRANCISCO — Ibuprofen, the drug contained in such pain
relievers as Advil, Motrin and Nuprin, may reduce the risk of developing
Alzheimer’s disease by up to 60 percent, researchers reported Thursday.
Aspirin and acetaminophen, which is in pain relievers such as
Tylenol, appeared to have no effect on preventing the disease, according
to the 14-year Johns Hopkins University study of2,065 elderly people.
The study is the latest and one of the largest suggesting that non
steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs, help the brain fight the
effects of amyloid protein deposits linked to Alzheimer’s.
Researchers and the Alzheimer’s Association cautioned people against
rushing out and buying the drugs. The drug can cause gastric bleeding
- and chronic use may be related to other diseases.
Investigators find nothing wrong
with billions of recalled cigarettes
ATLANTA—Nothing unusual was
found in the 8 billion cigarettes
recalled last year by Philip Morris that
isn’t wrong with all cigarettes, gov
ernment health investigators said
Thursday.
The Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention investigated morethan
70 complaints from people in 27 states
who said they became ill after smok
ing the cigarettes. They complained
of coughing, wheezing, watery eyes
and nose and throat irritation.
The cigarettes contained nothing
out of the ordinary, said Michael
Ericksen, director of the CDC’s Of
fice on Smoking and Health.
“The single greatest cause of death
in this country is lighting organic ma
terial and sucking it into your lungs,”
_— -i .11
Erickscn said. “This episode could be
characterized as misplaced concern
on behalf of Philip Morris—that they
acted on a quality control issue that
they were concerned about, but failed
to act on the obvious health problems
associated with smoking.”
Philip Morris said it recalled the 8
billion Marlboros, Virginia Slims and
other brands last May because they
tasted and smelled bad and because an
irritating chemical used in making
pesticides, methyl isothiocyanate,
turned up in filters.
The CDC said it did find methyl
isothiocyanate in the recalled ciga
rettes, but researchers also found it in
Philip Morris cigarettes manufactured
after the recall and up to a year before
the recall. It also was found in ciga
rettes from other manufacturers.
“There was no additional problem
that we could detect from the contami
nation,” Ericksen said.
It’s not against the law for the chemi
cal to be in cigarettes, Ericksen said.
Philip Morris initially reported the
methyl isothiocyanate was created in
very small amounts by contaminants
in a material used to strengthen filters.
The company later concluded trace
amounts of the chemical found in its
cigarette filters were absorbed froni
paperboard packaging materials, said
Karen Daragan, a company spokes
woman in New York.
The company switched to a differ
ent supplier for the strengthener and
hasn’t had any more taste or smell
problems, Daragan said.
House Dili to guarantee
health insurance coverage
WASHINGTON — Looking for
success where President Clinton failed,
the Republican-controlled House
passed legislation Thursday night to
guarantee access to health insurance
to millions of Americans who lose or
leave their jobs.
The vote was 267-151.
Passage sent the measure to the
Senate, where Majority Leader Bob
Dole, the GOP presidential nominec
in-waiting, has scheduled debate for
next month on a more modest mea
sure. That narrower bill enjoys sub
stantial bipartisan support and has the
backing of the White House, as well.
“After years of talking about health
care reform we are now, with a new
Republican majority, going to enact
health care reform,” said Rep. Bill
Archer, R-Texas, chairman of the
House Ways and Means Committee.
He said the measure provides for
“availability and affordability” of in
surance for millions who now go with
out it.
But the bill also contains several
provisions that drew fire from the
White House and Democratic critics,
including ceilings on medical malprac
tice awards and a system of tax-de
ductible, individual savings accounts
to cover medical expenses.
Republicans “loaded up a very good
Wmgootkes- -foMpeeiw
interests,” including the American
Medical Association, said Rep. Jo
seph Moakley, D-Mass. Other Demo
crats said these measures might doom
the bill, taking insurance reform down
with it.
Democratic efforts to stripoutmany
of these provisions and substitute a
more limited measure, failed, 226-192*.
Republicans hope to showcase elec
tion-year passage of the measure as
one of the major accomplishments of
the 104th Congress, the first one under
GOPcontrol in four decades. Clinton’s
plan for universal coverage failed in
1994 after Republicans attacked it as a
government takeover of the nation’s
health care system.
In a recent speech, House Speaker
Newt Gingrich described the current
effort to reform health insurance as a
major step toward “relieving one of
the major anxietiesof working Ameri
cans.”
In remarks before a final vote,
Gingrich also signalled a willingness
to back down on some of the more
controversial items “if the president
sends up a veto signal.” He mentioned
the Medical Savings Accounts and
malpractice provisions, although he
also said the trial lawyers who oppose
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