Brinkmanship: Congress and the Administration on the Dept. of Commerce

A year-long campaign by House Republican freshmen to abolish the Department of Commerce is coming to a head this week as Congress struggles over must-pass legislation. Failure to pass two key bills could result in a default by the federal government, and a shutdown of the government next Tuesday.

This afternoon, the House agreed by a vote of 220-200 to a procedure which attached a Commerce Department dismantlement provision to a short term debt limit extension bill. This legislation would increase the federal government’s borrowing authority by $67 billion. Congress has traditionally been reluctant to agree to an increase in this limit, and this year it has been particularly difficult because so many of the 73 freshman Republican representatives want to reduce government spending. To help ensure passage, and to keep a promise to the freshman that Commerce legislation would be considered, the House leadership agreed to using the debt limit bill as a dismantlement vehicle.

What is likely to pass in the House is sure to run into immediate opposition in the Senate, as well as at the White House. Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole (R-KS), while favoring Commerce’s elimination, said today that he opposes doing so through the debt ceiling bill. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-NM), speaking of the dismantlement provision, has warned, “There aren’t enough votes for that over here -- by a lot.” It is expected that the Senate will not include a similar provision in its own debt limit bill, setting the stage for a major disagreement in the conference committee seeking to resolve differences in the two versions of the legislation.

Even if the dismantlement provision does survive in the debt limit bill sent to the President, the Administration has left no doubt that it will be vetoed. White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta has told House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) that the debt limit bill would have to be “clean” of any provisions such as that abolishing Commerce. Today the Washington Post quoted one senior administration official as saying, “Our position is that it does not matter what they put on this legislation, we are not going to accept anything but clean bills because we will not be blackmailed over default.” The stakes are high, because without an increase in the debt limit the federal government could go into default by the middle of next week.

Congress is also racing to complete action on another bill to provide additional money to keep the government from closing down on Monday night. As of this week, only two (agriculture and military construction) of the thirteen appropriations bills for FY 1996 have been signed into law. Under legislation the House passed last night, no more than 60% of last year’s spending would be allowed by a department through December 1. Without this stop-gap funding, at least 800,000 federal workers will be furloughed. Today a White House spokesman said there are “no chances” a shutdown could be avoided. When asked about the shutdown, House Science Committee Chairman and Budget Committee Vice Chairman Robert Walker (R-PA) stated, “I don’t know that we’re going to regard that as a major emergency.”