Budget bargainers reach deal for new teachers

The administration and Republicans also agreed to restore $11 billion in Medicare cuts to hospitals and nursing homes enacted two years ago, and neared a deal to let the International Monetary Fund step up its debt-relief efforts.

But as congressional and White House bargainers met into the evening, they gave up hope of finishing in time for Congress to adjourn Friday. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) sent the Senate home for Veterans Day and planned no votes there until at least next Wednesday.

"There's no way we can get this done tonight," Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) said of the bargaining.

The two sides agreed to a second year of Clinton's seven-year plan to hire 100,000 teachers, said people from both parties. The White House has made that proposal its highest-profile issue in this year's budget fight.

Clinton had requested $1.4 billion for the program for fiscal 2000, which began Oct. 1, and negotiators agreed to $1.325 billion. Twenty-nine thousand teachers were hired in the first year of the program and Clinton's request would have provided money to hire 8,000 more in fiscal 2000.

Bargainers also agreed to let school districts use 25 percent of the program's funds for teacher training and other education programs. That limit has been 15 percent, and Republicans have wanted school districts to have more flexibility in using the money.

Teachers hired under the act would have to be certified, and schools with at least 10 percent of uncertified teachers could request waivers to use the money for training instead of hiring.

"I'm pleased," said Rep. William Goodling (R-Pa.), chair of the House Education and the Workforce Committee. "Would I have liked more? Yes. Would they have liked more? Yes."

The two sides also exchanged offers on an effort by conservatives to restrict overseas abortion lobbying.

Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) still was insisting on letting coal mining companies dump waste into valleys and streams by suspending provisions of the Clean Water Act. Language doing that temporarily was being considered, said a Democrat who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Republicans did agree to add $1.45 billion for labor, health and education programs, compared to $2.3 billion that Clinton sought earlier.

House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) said he was nearing an agreement with Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers over international debt relief. Armey had opposed an administration effort to let the International Monetary Fund sell up to 14 million ounces of its gold and use the extra money to help multinational banks forgive some debt owed by poor countries. Helping some of those countries' economies by easing their loan problems has become an administration priority.

Armey said the two sides are moving toward an agreement to let the IMF re-value some of its gold at more than the $48 per ounce it is currently valued and use the extra capital for debt forgiveness. Included would be "iron clad" language limiting the use of that money for debt forgiveness, Armey said.

Republicans are considering a package containing perhaps all five incomplete spending bills for the new fiscal year that might reach the House floor by tomorrow.

A fight over paying nearly $1 billion in overdue United States dues to the United Nations - which conservatives have linked to the overseas abortion issue - was not resolved.

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