March 4, 1995

The House of Representatives today completed its work on a series of antiregulatory measures, bundled them into a package with enormous implications for the current system of Federal environmental controls, and sent it to an uncertain fate in the Senate. The package, which passed on a vote of 277 to 141, would temporarily suspend most new regulations; subject proposed rules on health, safety and environmental protection to elaborate scientific reviews; override the health considerations in existing laws with economic calculations of regulatory costs and benefits; compensate private landowners when regulations reduce their property values, and generally honor the Republicans' promise to roll back Federal regulations, a centerpiece of their 1994 campaign manifesto, the Contract With America.

President Clinton said today that the defeat of the balanced-budget amendment meant it was time for Republicans to spell out their spending plans, and warned that they seemed intent on cutting aid to children to benefit the well-to-do. Mr. Clinton's call for more specificity came a day after the Republicans failed in their quest to pass the balanced-budget amendment. He said that result made it incumbent on Congressional leaders to show how they would cut spending and reduce the deficit in the coming year.

The Justice Department announced today that it was bringing what it called a highly unusual Federal civil rights suit, an employment discrimination complaint on behalf of white men. The department is suing Illinois State University over a janitor-training program that excludes white men.

Fast Hunger Strike in Mexico Mexico's former President, Carlos Salinas de Gortari, went on a hunger strike to rescue his "honor" and then suspended it hours later. Page 3. Senator Bolts Democrats Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado, the only American Indian in the Senate, left the Democratic Party and joined the Republicans. Page 8. Simpson Lawyers Are Fined Judge Lance Ito levied fines against two of O. J. Simpson's lawyers for failing to give prosecutors a tape of an interview with a witness. Page 7.

Gov. George E. Pataki and state legislative leaders today released the final version of a death penalty bill that would make as many as 20 percent of the state's 2,400 annual murders punishable by execution. Experts said the bill, which is expected to pass in both houses of the Legislature and be signed into law by Mr. Pataki next week, is relatively limited in scope, falling in the middle of the other 37 states with capital punishment in terms of the crimes it covers.