March 29, 1989

LEAD: ''THEY are proposing to put the national government in your bathroom,'' concludes John Genovese, vice president for product development at American Standard Inc. ''They'' are a group of members of Congress, led by Senator Wyche Fowler Jr. of Georgia and Representative Chester Atkins of Massachusetts, who have introduced a bill setting

LEAD: At first, the scene in Abel's Club in Astoria, Queens, might have been any pool hall - ceiling fans doing halfhearted battle with stale smoke, three lights over each table, silence punctuated by the crack of ball hitting ball.

LEAD: The battle over this year's state budget, the tightest spending plan in more than a decade, has been shaped by a struggle - some say ideological - between the state's top Democratic officials over how much of an obligation the state government has to assist its poorest citizens.

LEAD: A New York State Supreme Court justice ruled yesterday that the San Diego Yacht Club had beaten its challenger unfairly last September and must forfeit the America's Cup, yachting's oldest and most prestigious trophy, to New Zealand.

LEAD: Prodded by the aerospace and electronics industries, the Commerce Department is challenging the State Department's exclusive authority over exports of commercial technology that has military applications.