Word: bill
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Wright scolded the President for other policies that revealed a "gap between rhetoric and reality." Just three months after signing a bill to fight drugs, Reagan "wants to cut that pledge in half." Wright described Reagan's proposal to cut education funds for the next fiscal year by 28% as "unilateral disarmament...
...initiatives of his remaining years in office: a new assault on America's horrendous trade deficit. The President was also signaling an important change of tactics. After two years of beating back congressional efforts to pass protectionist trade legislation, the White House is about to bring forth an omnibus bill that seeks to toughen trade laws and enhance American competitiveness. The Administration initiative, which will reach Capitol Hill in late February, is part and parcel of an aggressive U.S. posture toward some of its closest economic partners. Coming at a time when the air is already thick with international trade...
...that have been championed with increasing vigor on Capitol Hill. In past years the White House was able to rely on the Republican-dominated Senate to help keep such sentiments under control. Last August those loyalist forces helped Reagan sustain, although narrowly, a presidential veto of a protectionist trade bill that had passed both the House and the Senate. That bill took a piecemeal approach, among other things setting a new system of country-by-country quotas on imports of textiles, shoes and copper from such places as Taiwan, South Korea and Thailand...
This year the Democrats control both legislative chambers, and a presidential veto alone does not appear to be enough to stem the protectionist tide. Democratic Representatives have resubmitted a tough trade bill that the House passed last year but that died in the Senate. Included in that bill is a controversial amendment sponsored by Democratic Representative Richard Gephardt of Missouri. It provides that countries with highly protected domestic markets that run large surpluses with the U.S. would face automatic trade restrictions unless the surplus is reduced by fixed percentages annually. Gephardt's proposal would remove virtually all presidential discretion...
That prediction seemed borne out later in the week when leaders of the 100th Congress called at the White House to discuss domestic policy. Reagan opened by pledging to veto as a "budget buster" a $20 billion clean-water bill that passed both houses of Congress by overwhelming margins. House Speaker Jim Wright and Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd told the President they thought they had the votes to override; on Friday, Reagan vetoed the bill anyway. Byrd pressed Reagan to call a kind of summit meeting with congressional leaders to discuss strategies for reducing the budget deficit. "I didn...