001204.txt

Education spending
 bill tops session 
  to-do
   list 
          By Melanie Fonder
           For The News-Chronicle
                   WASHINGTON - Lawmakers will return to Washington
                   today to begin a rare lame-duck session to complete
                   their budget work, with the uncertain presidential
                   election that delayed its start still unresolved. 

                   Of the 13 federal spending bills - which must be
                   approved to keep the government running - nine have
                   been signed into law by President Clinton. 

                   Labor, Health and Human Services; Commerce, Justice
                   and State; Treasury and a tax cut measure are not
                   completed. The budget deadline was Oct. 1, but
                   several temporary measures have been passed to keep
                   the agencies running. 

                   On Saturday, Clinton urged congressional leaders to
                   work on critical disputes over education spending in the
                   labor, health and human services measure first. 

                   "Congress should pass the education budget as its first
                   order of business," the president said. "Fortunately,
                   we're already standing on common ground." 

                   Clinton was referring to a bipartisan agreement reached
                   before the election that would have increased education
                   spending 20 percent from last year but was dropped
                   when Republican leaders objected. Democrats are
                   seeking more money to hire more teachers and for
                   school repair funds, while the GOP is pushing for
                   states to have the option of how to spend the additional
                   dollars. 

                   THOMPSON QUIET ON POTENTIAL OFFERS
                   Many Republicans still consider Wisconsin Gov.
                   Tommy Thompson a potential choice for a George W.
                   Bush Cabinet position even though he failed to deliver
                   the Badger State for Bush Nov. 7. 

                   Thompson, however, has refused to speculate on the
                   possibility. "You're not going to get me into that
                   (speculation)," Thompson told reporters last week.
                   "We're not talking. No comment." 

                   Other GOP governors, who seem to have made Florida
                   their new homes during the election controversy,
                   appear to be publicly campaigning for the Cabinet. 

                   Compared with Montana Gov. Marc Racicot and
                   Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, Thompson has made
                   relatively few comments or national television
                   appearances in recent weeks. Thompson has also
                   declined to tell reporters whether he has been
                   contacted by the Bush campaign over the last week as
                   it began staffing a transition team, according to the
                   Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 

                   Several other state politicians, including Reps. Tom
                   Barrett, D-Milwaukee, and Ron Kind, D-La Crosse, are
                   closely watching and waiting to see whether Thompson
                   will be offered a position or will run for a fifth term before
                   making their own decisions about a race for governor in
                   2002. 

                   RYAN WILL SKIP LAME DUCK
                   Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Janesville, who was married on
                   Saturday, had not banked on the House being in
                   session as late as December when he made wedding
                   plans. 

                   But Ryan was given the nod from House Majority
                   Leader Richard Armey, R-Texas, to skip this week's
                   votes and take his planned 10-day honeymoon to the
                   Virgin Islands. 

                   Ryan, 30, who was elected to his second term a little
                   less than a month ago, married Janna Little, 31, in
                   Oklahoma City. Little is an attorney for
                   PricewaterhouseCoopers. 

                   This column by Fonder, a staff writer for The Hill, a
                   Washington-based weekly newspaper that covers
                   Congress, appears every Monday in the
                   News-Chronicle. You can send e-mail to her at
                   melfonder@yahoo.com.