Pres Clinton Sends Congress FY97 Budget

To meet a legal requirement that the US President provides Congress with a spending plan for the next fiscal year by the first Monday in February, President Clinton has sent Congress the bare-bones outline of a $1.64 trillion budget for 1997. Details of the plan, which would balance the budget over the next seven years, are due the week of March 18.

With the deadlock over this year's budget still ongoing, no Congressional hearings on the new budget plan, which uses the Congressional Budget Office's conservative economic estimates, are scheduled.

One of the few initiatives mentioned in the program proposes subsidizing health insurance premiums for up to six months for people who lose their jobs. Some 3.8 million Americans would be covered annually, it was estimated, but no projected costs were given.