ACCESSION NUMBER:00000
FILE ID:97022606.txt
DATE:02/26/97
TITLE:26-02-97  CONGRESSIONAL REPORT, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1997

TEXT:
(Torricelli/Balanced Budget Amendment, Helms/Lake)  (490)

TORRICELLI SAYS HE WILL VOTE AGAINST BALANCED BUDGET AMENDMENT

Senator Robert Torricelli (Democrat-New Jersey) announced February 26
he would vote against balanced budget amendment to the U.S.
Constitution, dealing a fatal blow to its chances of passage.

Torricelli was the sole undeclared senator and his decision left the
amendment one vote shy of the 67 required for passage. Senate
Republican leaders had scheduled a vote for next Tuesday. Defeat in
the Senate was expected to stall the amendment in the House for at
least several months.

"I have struggled with this decision more than any I have ever made in
my life...I will not cast the 67th vote," Torricelli told a news
conference.

"I have approached this with enormous reverence for the constitution
of our country. The constitution of the United States is as close to
perfection as ever achieved in the affairs of state," he said.

Senator Mary Landrieu (Democrat-Louisiana) had announced the previous
day that, with reservations, she would vote "yes" because of a
campaign promise to do so.

Torricelli, who voted for balanced budget amendments as a member of
the House of Representatives, told reporters he cannot accept the
latest version of the amendment because it would make the government's
job too difficult in coping with military and economic emergencies and
long-term investment needs.

He said he talked February 25 with President Clinton, who opposes the
amendment, and "I told him my inclinations."

The balanced budget amendment also was defeated by a single vote in
1995, when then Senator Mark Hatfield of Oregon was the only
Republican to reject it.

This time, all 55 Republicans and 11 of the 45 Democrats said they
would vote for the Republican bill, which would require that outlays
and revenues be in balance after 2002 and that a three-fifths majority
in each House be required to make an exception in any year.

A final vote is expected in the Senate on Tuesday, March 4.

HELMS CHARGES LAKE WITH "PATTERN OF CONTEMPT FOR CONGRESS"

Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair Jesse Helms (Republican-North
Carolina) says Congress should not confirm Tony Lake as Director of
Central Intelligence because he has shown a "clear pattern of contempt
and disregard" for Congress.

Helms made the accusations in a four-page letter sent February 25 to
Senator Richard Shelby, the chairman of the Senate Select Committee on
Intelligence.

In the letter that was released to the public by Helms' staff, Helms
says that Lake withheld from the Senate information on Iran and Bosnia
while he was National Security Affairs Advisor at the White House.

Helms also said that Lake refused "to advise the President to take
actions required by law with respect to Chinese proliferation" and
that he was "cavalier" in dismissing "our questions and requests on
the Chemical Weapons Convention."
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