Clinton vetoes international aid bill

But the president holds out for compromise with GOP on budget

October 18, 1999
Web posted at: 12:59 p.m. EDT (1659 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bill Clinton vetoed a $12.7 billion international aid bill Monday, accusing Senate Republicans of shortchanging critical U.S. commitments to the Middle East peace process and other administration overseas priorities.

But at the same time, Clinton said he was inviting congressional Republicans to the White House in hopes of negotiating an overall budget compromise. The president said the GOP was underfunding education and other administration domestic priorities, including more funding for community police officers.

Clinton took a conciliatory tone in his public comments, saying he was confident he could reach a compromise with the GOP leadership.

"We need to sit down and do it together," Clinton said. "You know, we can continue this standoff and I will fight for what I believe in as I have ever since they took over the Congress in 1995. But in the years where we have worked together in '96, '97 and '98, we produced good results for the American people and we ought to do that in 1999 and that's my commitment."

But administration officials said the White House will take a hard line in the budget talks, insisting on more money for administration priorities and criticizing Republicans for violating a pledge not to spend money from the Social Security surplus to fund next year's budget.

The president said Republicans were shortchanging spending needs on education, the environment and foreign policy affairs, including U.S. obligations under the Wye River Mideast peace accord.

Meeting with reporters after a briefing from his economic team, Clinton said another temporary spending measure would almost certainly be needed to keep the government open. The current stopgap spending measure that Congress passed and Clinton signed expires on Thursday.

Congress is unlikely to override Clinton's veto, which is the 28th of his presidency. The House barely passed the bill 214-211, and the Senate only narrowly passed it 51-49. A two-thirds vote in both houses is needed to override a presidential veto.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Illinois) said in a statement that the extra money Clinton wants can only be obtained by getting money from the Social Security trust fund, which he called that "wrong and irresponsible."

"Congress will not use Social Security as a pot of gold to fund foreign aid," Hastert said.

Congress' version of the international aid bill is $2 billion less than what Clinton proposed and includes none of the $500 million down payment he had sought to help Israel and the Palestinians implement the peace accord negotiated last year at Wye River, Maryland. In all, Clinton has pledged $1.8 billion in U.S. support for the Mideast peace effort.

The bill also provides significantly less money than Clinton requested for international debt relief, the Peace Corps and for efforts to reduce the nuclear threat from North Korea and other countries.

Congress also eliminated a $241 million State Department program that helps former Soviet nuclear weapons scientists find work in hopes of making sure they do not sell their services to rogue states attempting to develop nuclear weapons.

For the time being, international aid likely would continue to flow at current levels as part of stopgap spending legislation that covers agencies and departments for which there has been no appropriation.

CNN's John King and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Clinton vetoes international aid bill

But the president holds out for compromise with GOP on budget

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Monday, October 18, 1999