Across the Nation

Congress and Clinton battle over budget

WASHINGTON - Congress continued its budget battle with President Clinton last week, making some progress but leaving significant work to be done almost a month into the new fiscal year and just nine days before the election.

The lawmakers met for a rare Sunday session, and Republicans vowed to stay until Election Day, if necessary, rather than accede to the president's spending demands.

Leaders also scheduled votes for tomorrow - Halloween - which would surpass Oct. 28, 1990, as the closest Congress has ever worked up to Election Day, which this year falls Nov. 7. Lawmakers have often returned after elections to complete work, but in those years always began a break by mid-October.

Republicans pushed a tax-cut package and a spending bill through the House on Thursday, both of which Clinton has threatened to veto in a sharply partisan confrontation over tax reductions, school construction, health care and immigration.

The House voted 237-174, mostly along party lines, for a bill that would pare taxes by $240 billion over the next decade for some small businesses, people saving for retirement and others. The tally fell short of the 289 votes the House would need to overturn a veto if all 433 House members voted.

The measure also would boost the hourly minimum wage by $1 and roll back Medicare cuts imposed on health care providers three years ago.

"I believe that these provision will benefit millions of Americans by reducing their tax burden and improving access to health care," said Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Holland).

Democratic Reps. Jim Barcia of Bay City and Debbie Stabenow of Lansing joined all six Michigan Republicans in support of the bill, while Michigan's eight other Democrats voted against it.

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Menominee) said he supported many of the provisions in the bill, but "I could not support this particular bill because it was loaded with additional tax cuts and other legislation I disagree with."

Later, the House by a 206-198 vote passed the spending bill, which would provide $39.9 billion for the new fiscal year for the departments of Commerce, Justice and State. It also would revamp immigration laws and dispense hundreds of millions of dollars for lawmakers' hometown projects and industries nationwide.

GOP stops linking Clinton with bomb

NEW YORK - The state Republican Committee said yesterday it had stopped calling voters with a phone message linking Hillary Rodham Clinton to the bombing of the USS Cole.

The message had said Senate candidate Clinton took money from a group that supports the type of terrorism responsible for the Oct. 12 blast on the U.S. destroyer that killed 17 sailors and injured 39 others.

Clinton lashed out at Republican opponent Rep. Rick Lazio after learning about the message Saturday, saying he and the party should apologize to the Cole victims' families.

Dan Allen, a state GOP spokesman, said the calls that started Thursday weren't stopped because of Clinton's criticism but because the GOP had reached everyone in its target group.

"We called as many people as we were going to call with that message," Allen said. "We're done with it."

He said he did not know how many calls were made, but he said Republicans were still telling voters Clinton accepted money from an organization linked to terrorism.

The Clinton campaign last week returned $50,000 from a Boston fundraiser after learning it had been sponsored by a group that supports the Palestinian organization Hamas. The campaign denied knowing the group was involved with the fund-raiser.

Lazio said yesterday that the Clinton campaign was "desperately trying to change the subject from the fact they received donations and Mrs. Clinton attended a fund-raiser involving people that were supportive of the idea of using violence."

Clinton said: "They were embarrassed to have this discovered. Clearly it was something they were trying to do below the radar screen."

A CBS News/New York Times poll released Sunday gave Clinton a 49 percent to 41 percent lead, with a margin of error of three percentage points.

Clinton and Lazio are running for the seat of retiring Democratic Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

Expanded jury trial leads to appeals

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court is seeing the effects of its groundbreaking ruling on a New Jersey case.

The ruling was issued in June and dealt with the case of a New Jersey man who fired shots into a black family's home. The justices said he was entitled to have a jury decide whether he acted out of hate and could be sent to prison longer than the ordinary maximum sentence.

The justices ruled that any question that could boost someone's maximum sentence, such as whether a crime was motivated by racial hate, must be decided by a trial jury.

Judges no longer can decide such issues on their own during sentencing.

Now new appeals citing that decision are rolling in to the Supreme Court. The justices have ordered lower courts to take a new look at many cases.