THE HOUSE DELIVERS, BUT THEN WHAT?

By COMPILED BY TOM CURRY

This year the House passed all but one of the reforms that make up the G.O.P.'s Contract with America. Only three, however, have been signed into law. The rest have yet to make it to the President's desk. A progress report:

THE CONTRACT'S PREAMBLE: MAKING CONGRESS ACCOUNTABLE

Gingrich's first legislative victory this year was passing a law that subjects the Speaker and his colleagues to the same labor and civil-rights laws that apply to private-sector employers. Clinton signed the bill in January.

1. CUTTING SPENDING

The House approved an amendment to the Constitution requiring that the budget be balanced, but it fell one vote short in the Senate, where Republican Mark Hatfield of Oregon defected, insisting it was a gimmick. At the moment, the House and Senate are crafting a compromise on another kind of budget-cutting measure, the presidential line-item veto. But with a Democrat in the White House, Republicans are in no rush to hand Clinton a scalpel.

2. GETTING TOUGH ON CRIMINALS

The House passed a series of bills in February that would limit appeals in death-penalty cases and give prosecutors more leeway to use illegally obtained evidence; the Senate has yet to act on all of them.

3. Encouraging personal responsibility

G.O.P. lawmakers want a tough welfare-reform law, including a House measure that would deny extra money to mothers who bear children while in the program. Clinton will probably veto it.

4. STRENGTHENING THE FAMILY

The House and Senate have passed measures to give tax credits to people who adopt children; they're stuck in a House-Senate conference committee.

5. GIVING A BREAK TO MIDDLE-CLASS FAMILIES

A $500-per-child tax credit and broader IRAs are part of the budget bill over which Clinton and the Republicans are fighting. Neither measure will go anywhere if there's no deal.

6. MAKING THE U.S. MILITARY STRONGER AND MORE AUTONOMOUS

Pressed by the House, Clinton signed a $243 billion defense-spending bill, which provides $7 billion more than he wanted. And the Contract's anti-U.N. rhetoric pushed the President into pledging that American troops in Bosnia would take their orders from U.S. generals and no one else.

7. LETTING SENIOR CITIZENS KEEP MORE OF THEIR MONEY

Republicans want to allow Social Security recipients to earn $30,000 before they lose some of their benefits. The G.O.P. also wants to repeal the 1993 tax increase on benefits received by retirees. Both measures passed the House; the Senate is considering them. Clinton has not said whether he will sign them.

8. HELPING BUSINESSES CREATE JOBS

The House and Senate passed a cut in the capital gains tax as part of the budget Clinton vetoed. It may be revived under a budget compromise. The President did sign a bill ending the practice of imposing federal mandates on states without providing the money to carry them out. Meanwhile, the House passed a bill making it more difficult for federal agencies to hand down new regulations. It bogged down in the Senate.

9. DISCOURAGING LAWSUITS AGAINST CORPORATIONS

A bill to limit the size of punitive damages in product-liability and medical-malpractice cases is being thrashed out by House and Senate conferees. At the same time, the White House is hinting Clinton will sign a bill that deters shareholders from filing "frivolous" suits against firms in which they invest.

10. Limiting the terms of members of Congress

The constitutional amendment never even came close in the House, falling 61 votes shy of the two-thirds majority needed. But with 12 Senators and 29 Representatives announcing their retirement this year, the issue seems less pressing.

--Compiled by Tom Curry