UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Monday, March 18, 1996
Environment becomes Clinton's trump card
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Divided among themselves and feeling the heat of opinion polls, Republicans are trying to blunt criticism that they are destroying the environment — an issue President Clinton has made part of his re-election strategy.
Led by a class of firebrand freshmen, House Republicans have waged an impassioned assault on environmental programs, branding them among the worst examples of an over-reaching federal bureaucracy in
need of harnessing.
Throughout the last year, they have sought to cut spending plans drastically at both the Interior Department and Environmental Protection Agency, while
Bill Clinton
altering laws governing everything from land use to pollution cleanup.
Their goal, they say, is to free businesses and land owners from burdensome regulations.
But many moderate GOP lawnmakers, as well as pollsters, have warned that the effort could boomerang politically and give Clinton a campaign issue that resonates with Democrats, independents and many Republicans. That assessment has not been lost at the White House.
For several months now, the president repeatedly has singled out the
Republican-led Congress, charging last week in New Jersey that it had waged the most aggressive anti-environmental campaign in recent history.
Clinton also has vetoed a rash of spending bills, saying they would threaten environmental protection.
It is a noticeable turnabout for a president whose first two years in office were marked by criticism from environmental leaders for caving to Western lawmakers on federal grazing reforms.
The focus on the environment comes as several polls suggest that Democrats and Republicans alike are wary of tampering with 25 years of federal policies that they believe have improved water and air quality and protected America's forests, wetlands and endangered species.
"Voters' willingness to reject candidates who would weaken these (environmental) laws crosses party lines," Democratic pollster Celinda Lakes said.
One of her polls in January found nearly three of four voters consider the environment an important priority, including a majority of Republicans and 61 percent of GOP women.
Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., who has fought to soften his party's stand on environmental issues, said the GOP was going downhill but now recoomizes the potential danger.
"The majority of the House members ... have acknowledged that we mishandled the issue. We overreached," Boehlert said, adding he already sees signs of moderation.
a year ago, only Boehler and one other House Republican voted
against a regulatory reform package denounced by environmentalists.
More recently, 63 GOP members bucked the House leadership and joined Democrats to erase 17 controversial provisions on an EPA spending bill.
Clinton has played the environmental card strongest in his budget confrontations with Republicans.
And this month, House leaders abandoned a more modest regulatory reform bill when it became clear it would produce another fight about the environment.
When the GOP put a provision in one spending bill to open an Arctic refuge to oil drilling, he promptly delivered a veto. He also has vetoed Interior Department and EPA spending bills, saying their cuts were too steen.
The GOP's firebanks said they had no intention of destroying the environment but do want to rein in unrealistic programs that cost businesses billions of dollars a year and threaten private landowners' rights.
"I am not a cold-blooded opponent of the environment," said Rep. Tom DeLay. R-Texas.
He calls the criticism a lie perpetuated by environmental extremists as part of presidential yearpoliticking.
But as the Senate took up another spending bill last week, Democrats and environmentalists charged it contained the same anti-environment spending cuts and provisions.
"Republicans vowed to take a more moderate line," said South Dakota Sen. Tom Daschle, the Senate's leading Democrat. "Apparently they just can't help themselves."
Dole faces budget battle
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The White House yesterday urged Sen. Bob Dole to reject the Republican right's extremism and work with President Clinton to pass key legislation this year.
White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta said Dole had to make a decision.
"He's got to make a choice whether he's going to moderate his positions or continue to embrace extreme positions," Panetta said.
The budget will be announced tomorrow, and Dole is to ensure that another partial government shutdown won't happen when funding for the budget runs out on Friday.
With the nomination nearly locked up, Dole is expected to devote more time to the business of Congress, which means dealing with the president's 1997 budget proposal, Panetta said.
Despite Panetta's appeal to Dole to work with the administration, congressional leaders appearing in yesterday's news shows expressed little optimism that the gridlock of 1995 Congress would not continue in 1996.
Clinton's plan, which calls for $1.64 trillion spending in 1997 and includes
$99 billion in tax
billion in tax cuts and increased spending on the environment and education, likely is to be rejected as Re-publicans begin putting together a spending plan.
Senate Majority Whip Trent Lott. R-Miss.
Bob Dole
expressed anger at Clinton for threatening to veto a bill to fund the government through the end of this fiscal year because he wanted $169 billion, rather than the $166 billion being offered.
"What kind of cooperation is that
from the President of the United States?" he said on NBC.
The two Democrats on the show, minority leaders Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri, agreed that balancing the budget should be a top priority, but also pressed for action to raise the minimum wage, which has been $4.25 an hour since 1991, and to pass legislation to ensure that people can carry health insurance from one job to another and not lose their insurance when they are laid off.
Panetta, who also mentioned the minimum wage, health care reform and a strong anti-terrorism bill as important goals, said that Dole's role was crucial to making this legislative year a success.
Panetta said that last year Dole had become captive to the extremist Republicans to protect his presidential bid.
"If he continues to go in that direction, then we're going to see continuing gridlock," he said.
THE NEWS in brief
Peace Corps' graduate recruitment tops survey
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — For Americans finishing college this year, the Peace Corps is the employer with the most job openings, says a survey of employment prospects.
The federal volunteer overseas service, which operates in 94 countries, plans to recruit 3,292 members of the class of 1996. It led the list of
The only other employers that plan to hire more than 2,000 graduates this year were two Chicago-based consulting and accounting firms, Andersen Consulting LLP and Arthur Andersen LLP, and Enterprise Rent-A-Car.
100 employers with openings for new graduates in an annual survey by The Black Collegian magazine.
Black Collegian is published twice a year as a career and self-development journal for African-American students. However, its survey covers the total number of anticipated college hires, not simply their minority hires, it said.
ington called attention during the weekend to the survey in the New Orleans-based magazine's winter semester issue.
Peace Corps headquarters in Wash-
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