Lame, but Lively, Ducks

By Ed Magnuson

Congress returns to tackle some tough ones: MX, a gas tax and deficits

The great congressional debate over America's mightiest intercontinental ballistics missile, the MX, could not have opened with a more suspenseful first act. Amid the free-form theatrics of a special session of Congress, the ten-warhead weapon survived an indefinite delay in production on the closest possible vote: a tie. It was saved by an intercontinental strike of a different sort, radiotelephoned pleas dispatched by Ronald Reagan to key legislators from Air Force One while he approached Brazil, the first stop on his four-nation mission to Latin America (see following story). Some quirks of timing and personality also helped, keeping a few Congressmen from casting anti-MX votes.

Indeed, the lameduck session waddled onstage with a most ungainly gait. That is really not surprising, since 84 of the 535 legislators will not be part of the 98th Congress, which will convene in January, and legislators in that situation tend to cast unpredictable swan-song votes. Even the session's most surefire goal seemed in some doubt: the creation of a modest public works program to begin repairing the nation's crumbling roads, bridges and mass transportation systems. The 320,000 jobs that the plan would create seemed inadequate in the wake of a Labor Department announcement last week that the nation's unemployment rate has surged once again, to 10.8%. That figure translates into some 12 million Americans now out of work (see ECONOMY & BUSINESS).

Still, the MX fight best illustrates this congressional session's tendencies, both lame and lively. The 95-ton missile, designed to reinforce the Minuteman ICBMs, was a bird without a nest until President Reagan two weeks ago selected a Dense Pack basing mode for 100 MX missiles in a 14-mile-long strip in southeastern Wyoming. The President's action focused congressional minds on the doomsday issues of nuclear strategy and arms-control tactics, even as three separate issues affecting the MX were before both chambers: 1) a $998 million appropriation to produce five of the missiles, although prototypes have not yet been fully tested and Congress may reject the basing; 2) an Administration request for $2.7 billion in research and development funds, which seems certain to be passed; 3) approval of the Dense Pack basing mode, which has been barraged by criticism from non-Pentagon scientists and is in deep trouble. A subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee last month approved item 1, the production funds, by a mere one vote. The full committee took up the $998 million appropriation last week. There is little opposition to item 2, the bill requesting research funds. But the congressional fight over Dense Pack is just getting under way.

The President, both before and after he flew off to Latin America, continued the Administration's determined campaign for the missile's production, concentrating on undecided legislators. "Hello, Virginia," he joked to Nebraska Republican Virginia Smith. "I'm sure that you are glad that the MX is not going into your district." Talking with Arkansas Democrat Bill Alexander, the President poked fun at himself for having failed to bring along cool clothing for torrid Brazil. To all MX doubters, including Ohio Republican Ralph Regula, he made the same basic pitch: "We can't go to the arms talks without the MX."

In less dramatic fashion, Vice President George Bush, who recently returned from a private talk in Moscow with Soviet Leader Yuri Andropov, was doing the same thing: working the telephones from Washington. He argued that killing MX funds now would send the wrong "signal" to the new Soviet leadership.

When the 55-member House Appropriations Committee convened to vote on MX production, New York Democrat Joseph Addabbo, chairman of its defense subcommittee, introduced a motion to kill the $998 million. He had counted the probable vote as extremely close and had considered seeking a delay. Florida Democrat William Lehman, recovering from surgery, called him that morning from New York's Memorial Sloane-Kettering Cancer Center to advise that if the roll call could be put off until later in the day, "I'll hire a nurse and a helicopter and come down." Lehman wanted to help kill the MX funds. But Addabbo discovered that California Democrat Julian Dixon, who also opposed the MX production, had an unexplained "major commitment" in Los Angeles and wanted to leave by noon. Kentucky Democrat William Natcher, another MX critic, refused to leave a meeting with incoming Congressmen in a nearby House room to vote on Addabbo's motion. Illinois Republican John Edward Porter, also an MX production foe, was in Brazil representing the U.S. as a delegate to the Western Hemisphere Conference of Parliamentarians on Population and Development.

When the roll call began, it quickly became apparent that the vote was a potential deadlock. Two of the doubters phoned by Reagan--Smith and Regula--voted nay to the fund-killing measure; the President had done his work well. With the tally at 26 to 25 in favor of Addabbo's antimissile motion, only one vote remained to be cast: that of Arkansas' Alexander, who is part of the Democratic House leadership. He had passed when his name was first called, he explained later, because "I knew it was going to be close. I didn't want to decide the issue, since I was undecided." But now Alexander, on the spot, went with Reagan. His vote against Addabbo's motion produced a 26-to-26 tie. This meant the motion lost: the funds for MX production remained. Alexander's explanation: "I voted for the MX to send it to the floor for a vote and full debate."

Approval of MX production funds by the House, which is scheduled to begin floor debate on the matter this week, is by no means certain. Almost unnoticed in the furor over the MX was that the Administration made no attempt to restore production funds for the Pershing II missile, which it is scheduled to begin deploying in Europe next year. Addabbo's subcommittee had eliminated those funds last month. After three successive Pershing test failures, congressional sentiment is opposed to full production until the missile's ailments are cured. Even so, the Administration apparently hopes to save the intermediate-range missile in conference committee deliberations between the House and the Senate, which has approved Pershing production.

With far less controversy than on the MX, the House Ways and Means Committee rushed through a five-year $27.5 billion program to rebuild the nation's transportation facilities. Although eventual approval seems likely, disputes are arising over how the funds should be distributed, whether the work can begin soon enough to be effective and whether the 5-c--per-gal. gasoline tax increase that would finance it is equitable to lower-income citizens. The House bill, backed by the President and leaders of both parties, also would increase taxes on tires and fees paid by truckers, a proposal that drew sharp fire from trucking lobbyists. Airline executives want to exempt aviation fuel from the new tax.

Other, more grandiose job plans seem unlikely to get off the launching pad. Democratic leaders spoke of pushing a second public works program, costing $5 billion, but it will probably not get serious consideration this year. "It's all show," scoffs Michigan's Democratic Congressman William Brodhead. "The Senate will never pass it, and the President will never sign it." Still, Senate leadership aides do not rule out some extra funding of sewer and water-system projects.

Reagan saved the harassed legislators one headache by bowing to near unanimous advice from Republican congressional leaders that his proposal to shift the final 10% installment of his three-year income tax cut from next July to January had no chance of passage. In spite of that retreat, the President showed that he retains plenty of backstage clout. His friend and close Senate ally, Nevada's Paul Laxalt, led a successful drive to remove Oregon Senator Bob Packwood from chairmanship of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Packwood played a major role in helping engineer the reelection of every Republican Senator in November, thereby maintaining the G.O.P.'s eight-vote margin in the Senate, but he had aroused the President's anger by complaining too publicly that Republicans had "written off' blacks, Hispanics, Jews and working women. Packwood was replaced, on a 29-to-25 Republican caucus vote, by Indiana Senator Richard Lugar.

Whether the President can prevail in his determination to slash funding for social programs, rather than military projects, in tackling deficits now estimated as high as $200 billion in each of the next two years is doubtful. Last week Budget Director David Stockman ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to save some $500 million in the fiscal 1984 budget by sharply cutting the personnel of the Public Health Service. All ten regional offices of the Public Health Service would be abolished. The Stockman directive will be effective unless it is withdrawn by the Administration or vetoed by Congress.

A cut of $500 million in a budget so many billions in the red strikes some Congressmen as scarcely worth the resulting curtailment of services. In one sense, a "damn the deficit" approach to the nation's budgeting seems to be gaining some admirers. Explains Rhode Island's Republican Senator, John Chafee, referring to some of his despairing colleagues: "When you're rounding off between a $ 150 billion and $200 billion deficit, what harm will it do to spend another $5 billion to put people back to work?" Adds Republican Senator William Cohen of Maine: "People add amendments and say, 'Oh, it's only another $300 million.' "

One clear irony of the special session is that it was called in large part to finish up work on the 13 major appropriations bills that fund the Government. (One includes a proposed pay raise for Congressmen that is unlikely to survive.) The House has passed eight and may approve four more before Christmas. The Senate has completed only three and is likely to pass only four more. Thus, despite all the fuss and expense, the 98th Congress may have to go through much of the same legislative maze all over again in January. --By Ed Magnuson. Reported by Neil MacNeil and Evan Thomas/Washington

With reporting by Neil MacNeil and Evan Thomas/Washington

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.