Rebuffing G.O.P. Chiefs, House Panel Backs Arts Endowment Funding
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
WASHINGTON -- In a surprise slap at Republican leaders, the House Appropriations Committee voted Thursday in favor of financing the National Endowment for the Arts.
The vote, 31-27, reversed a subcommittee vote that denied money to the endowment just last week.
Thursday's action, in which five moderate Republicans bolted from the party line, put on display the deep divisions between Republican conservatives and moderates and foreshadowed the problems for party leaders in establishing a coherent message in this election year.
On the arts matter, Majority Whip Tom DeLay, who had been absent for the morning vote, spent a frenetic afternoon trying to persuade the five moderates to change their votes.
The endowment money was attached to the $13.4-billion bill that keeps the national parks running. That broader bill, with the measure to provide $98 million for the arts, was approved by voice vote and sent to the House floor for consideration next month. Whatever happens on the House floor, money for the arts appears likely to continue. The Senate has already started approving the money, and President Clinton has indicated his support.
Eliminating taxpayer money for the arts is a priority for outside conservative groups but is a trickier issue for many members of Congress. To try to avoid embarrassment, Republican leaders decided -- and an Appropriations subcommittee agreed last week by voice vote -- to put no money in the Interior bill for the endowment but to allow a yes-or-no vote on the House floor later.
The idea was to avoid a public squabble in the subcommittee and the full committee and dispense with the matter in a quick vote on the floor that would be overshadowed by other votes. But Democrats set out Thursday to sabotage the plan, and with the unexpected assist from the five Republicans, they succeeded.
Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, forced the vote over the objections of the Appropriations chairman, Rep. Robert Livingston, R-La. No one spoke against the endowment.
Rep. Michael Forbes, R-N.Y., who voted for the endowment, said, "You can't have Democrats offer up an amendment to fund the NEA and expect Republicans who support the NEA not to vote for it."
The four other Republicans joining Forbes were Reps. Rodney Frelinghuysen of New Jersey, Jim Kolbe of Arizona, John Edward Porter of Illinois and James Walsh of New York.
Arts was not the only subject Thursday on which Republicans were at odds with themselves.
The full House had been expected to pass the $13 billion bill to keep the Treasury and Postal Service operating in the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. But 155 Republicans joined 135 Democrats and one independent in sidelining the bill on a procedural vote. And 60 Democrats and 65 Republicans voted with the Republican leadership.
The bill had two big political problems: it includes a measure to require that all health-insurance plans for federal employees cover the full range of contraceptives that they offer for other prescription drugs. And it dropped an earlier $4-billion commitment to prepare the government to cope with the computer glitch expected in the year 2000.
Friday, June 26, 1998
Copyright 1998 The New York Times |
