Knee deep: The House on Sept. 25 backed off its demand that American troops in Bosnia be home by next summer, voting to approve a $247.5 billion defense bill without its original amendment cutting off funds for operations in Bosnia if President Clinton did not complete the troop withdrawal as promised by next June 30. Lawmakers approved the compromise defense-spending bill 356-65 after House and Senate negotiators ironed out differences between the two chambers. Under the compromise, all the president must do to extend the Bosnia deployment into July and beyond is to formally state a reason to Congress by May 15, 1998. The measure also gives Mr. Clinton the power to kill the B-2 project.
Payback time: Also on Sept. 25, the House ignored a presidential veto threat and approved an amendment to a $31.7 billion spending bill that would reimburse the legal costs of any citizen wrongfully prosecuted. White House officials issued a statement saying the measure "would have a chilling effect on prosecutorial discretion." The amendment by Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) expands on a provision giving financial relief to members of Congress and their staff when they prevail in an improper prosecution. "It ought to protect anybody who is abused by a suit that is not substantially justified," Rep. Hyde declared. In a separate vote, the House approved a boost in funding for the Legal Services Corporation, an agency conservatives have fought since the Reagan era because of its pursuit of liberal activist causes through the courts. The LSC was designed with the ostensible purpose of assisting the poor with legal expenses.
Help is on its way: With only two votes in opposition, the Senate passed a measure streamlining the process for approving drugs and medical devices, and making it easier for seriously ill people to obtain experimental drugs. Maura Kealey of the Ralph Nader-founded Public Citizen called the Senate action the "worst thing to happen to public safety in a long time." The House began work on its version of the bill.
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Issue: "Building a better boycott"
October 04, 1997
Evolved