On Our Site Live Discussion: GOP Spokesman John Feehery and White House spokesman Barry Toiv Social Security Special Report

By Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 18, 1999; 12:49 p.m. EDT

With tensions growing between the White House and Congress, President Clinton today vetoed the $12.6 billion foreign aid bill, partly because it contained no money to carry out the administration's obligations under the Middle East peace accord reached at the Wye River Plantation.

"I vetoed the foreign operations bill this morning because it seems to me to be the next big chapter in the new American isolationism, right after the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty," Clinton said. The Republican-led Senate rejected the treaty last week, and the president has been warning of a "new isolationism" since.

The foreign operations bill is one of 13 spending bills that Congress must pass – and Clinton must sign – to finance the government in the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. A 21-day extension is scheduled to expire Thursday.

The White House signaled today it will agree to further extensions to prevent a government shutdown. The president also invited congressional leaders to meet with him to try to resolve the impasse over spending issues.

"We need to sit down and do it together," Clinton told reporters in the Cabinet Room. "We're going to have to make tough choices and we're going to have to make them together. Inaction is not an option."

Several Republican leaders have a deep distrust of Clinton and are reluctant to personally negotiate with him, although they may have few options as the president continues to veto spending bills that fail to fund his priorities. The GOP's initial response this morning was criticism of the latest veto.

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), said Clinton's foreign aid wish-list could be funded only by dipping into Social Security trust fund surpluses. "Congress will not use Social Security as a pot of gold to fund foreign aid," Hastert said.

House Republican Conference Chairman J.C. Watts Jr. (Okla.) said: "Republicans sent the president a responsible measure to make the investments critical to U.S. national security without spending one penny of the Social Security trust fund. Among other things, this legislation increased resources to fight illegal drug trafficking, offered greater assistance for Israel and other U.S. allies in the Middle East, and provided the necessary funds to rebuild war-torn Bosnia. But the Clinton/Gore Administration is begging for more."

Clinton spokesman Joe Lockhart said the president vetoed the bill because "It doesn't meet the president's priorities. Wye River is certainly an important element to that, and it is an important part of continuing to exercise U.S. leadership around the world."

A veto of the defense spending bill, meanwhile, "is under consideration," Lockhart said.