House Vote

Returning to work on the same day that most Americans had to file their federal tax forms, House Republicans on Monday staged a vote on a constitutional amendment designed to make it harder for Congress to raise taxes. They failed to muster the two-thirds majority--or 290 votes, if all members had voted--needed to approve the amendment, but the debate provided a spirited preview of how the two parties plan to deploy the tax issue to their advantage in this year's election campaigns.

For decades, efforts to give the District of Columbia a voting representative in Congress have run into a brick wall. Constitutional amendments failed to win the states' support. Ad campaigns about "taxation without representation" did not help the cause. Now, unexpected political forces are aligning behind a plan to give the district a House vote -- along with a new seat in Congress for Utah -- when lawmakers return for their lame-duck session in early December.

The House Tuesday night overwhelmingly passed the massive budget deal struck by GOP congressional leaders and the White House, despite opposition from dozens of conservative Republicans who complained that the bill spends too much while cutting taxes too little. The vote in favor of the $500-billion-plus appropriations bill was 333 to 95.

The failure by House lawmakers to break a stalemate over children's healthcare legislation Thursday marked another partisan standoff between Congress and the White House and underscored how difficult it will be in the years ahead to reform the larger insurance system, even though it is a top national priority. Insuring children was considered the easiest part of the healthcare challenge because children are cheaper to cover and public support for such coverage is high.

Hoping to stem the political damage from a spate of embarrassing scandals, the House voted Wednesday to tighten rules governing lobbyists but stopped short of a ban on free trips or gifts for lawmakers. The close vote on the measure -- 217 to 213, largely along party lines -- reflected criticisms by Democrats that the bill, intended to address Congress' ethically tarred image, would do little to change the way business is conducted on Capitol Hill.

In a victory for President Clinton and the House Democratic leadership, the House cleared the way Wednesday for approval of a modified line-item veto that had appeared to be dead. Speaker Thomas S. Foley and his lieutenants resorted to last-minute arm twisting to eke out a 212-208 victory in a preliminary showdown on the legislation with Republicans and some of the most liberal members of his own party.

In another dramatic no-confidence vote against President Clinton's policy, the Western allies and the United Nations, the House voted Tuesday for the United States to defy a U.N. arms embargo against participants in the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The 298-128 vote, which followed similar action by the Senate, exceeded the two-thirds majority required to override Clinton's threatened veto.

A Democrat who opposes the North American Free Trade Agreement, Rep. Jane Harman of Marina del Rey knew she could expect some arm-twisting to support President Clinton in one of his most crucial votes. But Harman still marvels at the high-level lobbying effort last week to get her to change her mind. First, there was Secretary of State Warren Christopher. Then came the calls from Madeleine Albright, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and former President Jimmy Carter. And at 11 p.m.

President Obama, framing this weekend's expected House action on healthcare reform as "historic," called on Congress to rise above politics and do something for the good of millions of Americans. The president, who has taken his campaign for healthcare legislation to Ohio, Missouri and Pennsylvania in recent weeks, made another public pitch for the plan Friday at a college campus arena in nearby Fairfax, Va., before an expected House vote on Sunday. "A few miles from here, Congress is in the final stages of a fateful debate about the future of health insurance in America," Obama told his audience.

The House approved legislation Thursday that would provide a federal safety net to insurance companies for future terrorist attacks, but the measure's fate is clouded by legal reforms added to it by Republicans. The Bush administration has said the bill is critical to the nation's economic recovery, and lawmakers are rushing to pass it to head off a threat by insurers to exclude terrorism coverage on commercial policies or drastically increase the cost of such protection.