AsCounty News went to press, congressional conferees were struggling to reach agreement on the $8.4 billion emergency spending bill to assist states which have recently experienced natural disasters. The bill's passage is delayed by numerous amendments unrelated to disasters.
The fiscal 1997 supplemental appropriations bill contains some NACo-supported provisions, including a restoration of Supplemental Security Income and Medicaid to legal immigrants who lost benefits because of last year's welfare reform law. This provision will be in effect through Sept. 30, 1997. The balanced budget agreement assumes that a permanent restoration will be enacted by then.
NACo also earned a victory by saving Section 1555 of the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act (FASA). The Senate proposed repealing the program completely. FASA would allow counties to purchase products from the federal supply schedules. Nearly all of the schedules were set to be open to public entities later this year, but small business objected. Under the compromise, congressional hearings will be held on FASA and the program's implementation would be delayed for at least the remainder of the year.
At press time, three controversial measures were delaying the disaster-relief bill. Conferees were considering alternatives to a NACo-opposed amendment providing an automatic spending freeze for any fiscal 1998 appropriations bill not enacted into law by Oct. 1, 1997. The president has threatened to veto the legislation if it contained that mechanism.
Also delaying action is a NACo-opposed effort by House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) to prohibit the U.S. Census Bureau to continue to spend funds on sampling. This statistical device would be used to compensate for possible undercounts in rural and urban areas. The House bill is silent on the issue and the Senate had crafted compromise language in its bill to allow the Census Bureau to continue to spend funds on sampling, subject to further congressional review. Some Republicans, however, are concerned that sampling will give Democrats greater representation in those census tracts where sampling would be used.
A NACo-supported Senate provision affecting public lands counties was also subject to intense debate between the Administration and Congress. Under the Senate bill, the Congress would instruct the Department of Interior to return to its previous policy which defers to state laws when determining appropriate rights of way on public lands (R.S. 2477). Senate Appropriations Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) has had sharp disagreements with Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt on the issue, and the Administration has threatened to veto the entire bill if the Senate provision is retained.
While there is no disagreement on the original provisions of the bill to provide relief to states which have recently experienced natural disasters, due to the other controversial provisions, the final bill may not be adopted until Congress returns the first week of June.