GOP in Congress Makes Offers on Budget, Immigration

WASHINGTON —  Republican congressional leaders on Thursday gave President Clinton counterproposals on key budget and immigration issues in an effort to wrap up the lame-duck Congress within the next week.

On the budget, GOP aides said, the leaders proposed raising spending by more than 10% in a bill funding the departments of Education, Labor and Health and Human Services. The increase would bring discretionary spending in that bill to more than $107 billion a year, up from about $96 billion.

But that revised total still would fall nearly $6 billion short of what budget bargainers from both parties had tentatively agreed to before the Nov. 7 election.

On immigration, Republicans proposed three measures, according to a spokeswoman for House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas). One would remove the threat of deportation hanging over certain immigrants convicted of felonies before 1996.

Another would allow some undocumented immigrants to remain in the United States while applying for permanent residency if they can prove they have lived in the country continuously since 1982.

A third proposal allows a spouse or minor child of a citizen or permanent resident to remain in the United States while applying for a green card--to immigrants, the invaluable proof of legal residency.

It was not immediately clear whether any of the offers would meet White House approval. Clinton is seeking substantial budget increases for education and a more sweeping reform of immigration law, among other measures, before he leaves office.

The Republican proposals came as the GOP leaders, House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi, met with Clinton and top congressional Democrats on Thursday for the second time this week.

Lott said afterward that he hopes the lame-duck Congress can conclude before the end of next week. “It’ll take a lot more work, but we’re making some progress,” Lott said just before the Senate approved a stopgap funding bill that will keep several critical government agencies operating another 24 hours. Today, Congress is expected to approve another such bill, known as a continuing resolution, to fund portions of the government through early next week.

Lott’s optimism was echoed by a spokesman for Hastert, who also described the talks as making “good progress.”

More than two months into the fiscal year that began Oct. 1 and more than a month since the election of next year’s Congress, the current Congress is still unsure of how to wrap up its work. Four of 13 annual spending bills are pending.

Aides to Armey and Hastert said the White House had greeted the GOP immigration proposals favorably. Before the election, Clinton had sought more extensive measures to grant amnesty to hundreds of thousands of immigrants who had lived in the country since 1986 and others who had come more recently from parts of Central America and Haiti. But Republicans have stoutly resisted those proposals.

Prospects for another immigration measure pushed by agricultural business groups were uncertain. Growers have lobbied strongly for legislation that could allow many thousands of illegal immigrants to become U.S. residents by working on farms for as few as three years.

The proposal has largely escaped public notice as the White House and the Republican-led Congress have clashed on other controversial issues.

But advocates say the proposal would represent a significant compromise between growers, who are seeking to stabilize their migrant work force, and farm workers, who are seeking higher wages and other benefits for immigrant laborers. The deal growers seek also would loosen some rules for a guest-worker program that allows foreigners to come legally to the United States for seasonal jobs.

“It is getting a huge push,” said Anthony Bedell, director of legislative affairs for the American Nursery and Landscape Assn. “Our industry has put out a full grass-roots alert. We are in a war-room mode here, making the rounds on [Capitol] Hill.”

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Times staff writer Janet Hook contributed to this story.