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Politics : Did Slick Boink Monica? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Catfish who wrote (16548)	6/26/1998 11:51:00 PM
From: ksuave	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20981

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

To: Catfish who wrote (16548)	6/27/1998 12:02:00 AM
From: ksuave	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 20981

Republican Leaders Outline Low-Budget Tobacco Bill By DAVID E. ROSENBAUM WASHINGTON -- Preparing to leave town for a two-week recess, Republican leaders in the House of Representatives Thursday offered a sketchy outline of the kind of low-budget tobacco legislation they favor. The Republican plan is meant as an alternative to the ambitious anti-smoking bill that was shelved by the Senate last week. The centerpiece of the plan would be an advertising campaign to discourage teen-age smoking and drug use modeled after the national campaign to encourage people to use seat belts in cars. The details of the legislation have not been completed. According to a one-page outline distributed Thursday, the bill would not raise cigarette prices and would apparently diminish the authority of the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco products. Under the plan, states and communities would be encouraged to penalize teen-agers caught smoking by taking away their driver's licenses. Rep. Deborah Pryce, R-Ohio, appointed by Speaker Newt Gingrich to be the party's spokeswoman on tobacco issues in the House, called the Republican approach "strong common-sense legislation" that would "reduce teen smoking without increasing taxes." Democrats and representatives of public health organizations responded that Republicans' measures would have no affect on teen-age smoking and amounted to a handshake with the tobacco industry. Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri, the Democratic leader, called it a fig leaf. The inability of the Republicans to agree on such details as how much the advertising campaign would cost and how it would be financed and the antagonistic response of Democrats and public health authorities to Thursday's announcement reinforced the growing view in the Capitol that no tobacco legislation will get through Congress this year. Last week, Gingrich promised that the party's legislative proposal would be introduced this week, but obviously some details could not be worked out. A lobbyist who has good connections with Republican lawmakers said that the framework for legislation was announced Thursday -- adding little to what Republican leaders had already described as their intentions -- so that Republicans could say at home over the recess that they planned to do something about teen-age smoking. Democrats hope to make a campaign issue out of the fact that Republicans are the main beneficiaries of political donations by the tobacco industry and the principal opponents of legislation that the industry opposes. Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, the fourth-ranking member of the House Republican leadership, described the Republican philosophy this way: "I think the American people understand that teen-agers are going to smoke. It's one of those rites of passage, if you will. But we ought to make it as difficult as possible, without imposing higher taxes and bigger government on the rest of the American people." Boehner, a smoker himself, said the leadership intended to bring the legislation before the House under procedures that would not allow amendments. Friday, June 26, 1998 Copyright 1998 The New York Times *God bless Boehner for stopping the growth of big government. I wonder how he stands on big government subsidies to the tobacco companies.*