GOP Tentatively Agrees to Yield on Disaster Aid Bill Stalemate

WASHINGTON — Signaling retreat, congressional Republicans tentatively agreed Wednesday to scrap or soften provisions that sparked President Clinton’s veto of an $8.6-billion disaster aid bill.

Determined to prevail, Democrats brought the Senate to a standstill for a second straight day. “We want people to know we’re not going to give up” until there is agreement on a replacement bill, said the Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.).

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), in comments backed by House GOP leadership aides, said he was ready to drop a provision designed to avert a government shutdown and handle it in separate legislation.

On a second contested provision, House Republicans backed off their demand to ban statistical sampling in the 2000 census. In a proposal under discussion, the administration would be required to present Congress with its proposed method for conducting sampling, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The final price tag of the measure seemed fluid. Lott at one point suggested $3.9 billion, but by evening, the number seemed more likely to be $6 billion or slightly more. Some of the money earmarked in the vetoed bill for the Federal Emergency Management Agency would be deferred, but Republicans would agree in writing to make it available when needed without demanding offsetting cuts in other programs.

Lott and House aides said it was possible a measure could be brought to the floor of the House or Senate today, but there was no final agreement, either on the specifics of legislation or on procedure.

The move came after 20 moderate House Republicans signed a letter, written on the stationery of Rep. Michael N. Castle (R-Del.), calling on House Speaker Newt Gingrich to allow a disaster-aid measure to come to the floor without the disputed items.

“There is another time, another bill, for these provisions,” they wrote of the anti-shutdown and census controversies.

With a majority of only 11 seats, the GOP would lose if Castle and his 19 co-signers joined with Democrats to try and force passage of a bill stripped of the contested issues.