Budget Bandwagon Picks Up Plenty of Bells and Whistles

WASHINGTON —  As Republicans’ budget legislation barrels through Congress, it is tempting for lawmakers to throw their own baggage on board--including pet projects, parochial interests and other bright ideas that might have a hard time passing on their own.

With public attention riveted on Medicare changes, tax cuts and other big-picture provisions of the budget-and-tax reconciliation bill now being constructed, it offers an inviting opportunity for enterprising lawmakers to piggyback bills on this fall’s legislative juggernaut.

Budget constraints make it harder than usual to slip in expensive pork-barrel projects of the traditional sort. But other pet issues are finding their way onto the budget package.

Sen. J. Bennett Johnston (D-La.) has used the arcane budget process to do a good turn for his oil-rich home state. He tacked onto the budget bill a provision that would exempt certain oil producers from paying royalties to the government if they drill in deep-water sites. That measure faced stiff opposition in the House earlier this year.

Rep. Joel Hefley (R-Colo.) turned to the budget to resurrect a bill that others would have left for dead--a measure that would require a review of the national park system. Just hours after the House soundly rejected the bill last week, amid criticism that it would lead to the closing of some national parks and monuments, Hefley got the measure tacked onto the budget bill when the House Resources Committee drafted its part of the package.

Other lawmakers are ripping pages off the GOP wish list and tacking them onto the budget. Rep. Cass Ballenger (R-N.C.) is taking aim at one of the labor laws that business loves to hate: the Davis-Bacon Act, which shores up the wages of construction workers on federally funded projects. The House Economic and Educational Opportunities Committee voted to include a repeal of Davis-Bacon into its part of the budget bill.

*

House Banking and Financial Services Committee Republicans, trying to sidestep opposition from President Clinton, have slipped into the budget a provision to relax rules that encourage banks to lend in their communities.

Some lawmakers may be overreaching in their enthusiasm to jump on board the budget train. Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), whose Kalamazoo district is home to the headquarters of pharmaceutical giant Upjohn Co., wanted to slip in legislation to relax Food and Drug Administration restrictions on the drugs that U.S. companies can manufacture for export. But he was rebuffed by GOP leaders, who feared that opening up the FDA law would invite unwanted controversies on such subjects as tobacco regulation.