President's Crime Bill Gets Another Setback
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday August 19, 1994
WASHINGTON, Friday: After another day of tense negotiations and bartering, President Clinton last night edged closer to the much-needed passage of his anti-crime legislation through Congress.
But his attempts to get a Democratic health plan through the Senate suffered another setback when senators pushing a compromise plan found it would cost far more than they had realised.
Mr Clinton and congressional Democrats have spent the past week trying to salvage the Crime Bill - and the President's standing - since the House unexpectedly voted to shelve it last Thursday.
The bill would have banned 19 types of assault weapons, provided more money for jails and created 50 new death-penalty crimes.
Although the legislation has overwhelming public support, a procedural motion to bring it to a vote was defeated by a coalition of representatives who opposed its provisions on gun control and death penalties as well as its$US44.59 billion ($ 60 million) cost.
Its 225-210 rejection in the House last week was a blow to the President because it came as the White House was trying to build momentum for a vote on one of its most important goals, health care.
Late yesterday, Democrats and Republicans were considering a compromise in which the bill's cost would be cut by $US3.5 billion.
The Speaker of the House, Mr Tom Foley, said he was "increasingly optimistic" that the bill would pass within the next day or two.
More than 20 Republicans signed a letter to Mr Clinton last night saying they were ready to support the bill if its cost was reduced and if some measures for rape and sexual offences were toughened.
If the Crime Bill passes, it will leave Mr Clinton to concentrate on his extraordinarily difficult promise to get a health insurance reform bill passed this year.
Mr Clinton had proposed a plan drawn up by his wife, Mrs Hillary Clinton, and a health task force which would have provided universal health coverage to Americans, mainly by forcing employers to pay for health premiums.
But this plan met widespread resistance in Congress, especially in the more conservative Senate where Mr Clinton lacks a filibuster-proof majority of 60 members.
Even if he did have 60 Democrats in the 100-member chamber, instead of the 56 he has now, there is no guarantee his legislation would pass, so effective have the bevy of interest groups against the plan been in their lobbying efforts.
Since the beginning of this month, the President has been forced to back a watered-down version of his bill, sponsored by the Senate Majority Leader, Senator George Mitchell.
But even this bill, which would provide only 95 per cent coverage and then not until 2000, is under attack from some Senators who say it is too invasive and expensive.
The Mitchell bill has been estimated to cost around $US1 trillion.
Mr Clinton must decide whether to keep Congress in session even longer to force it to work on health care or let legislators return home for some valuable campaign time.
* President Clinton will not come to Australia before this November's Asia Pacific leaders meeting in Indonesia and is considering a trip to the Philippines instead, it was revealed today.
The US Ambassador to Australia, Mr Ed Perkins, has formally sent a message to Mr Keating's office saying he regrets preliminary plans for the Australian presidential visit will have to be abandoned.
There has been some low-level speculation in Washington that Mr Clinton may not attend the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation group meeting because it is to be held so soon after the November mid-term congressional elections.
However, some government sources said the President was still set to attend the meeting and was looking at visiting the Philippines, the site of a major former US military base, at the time of the leaders meeting rather than Australia.
Mr Clinton's Democratic Party is expected to do badly in the November elections and it may be politically inconvenient for him to leave the country at this time.
© 1994 Sydney Morning Herald