Bush Closes Most Government Operations
President Bush, still smarting over the crushing defeat of the bipartisan deficit-reduction package, began shutting down all but essential government operations early today after refusing to sign a short-term spending measure approved by Congress to keep the government running for a week.</br></br>Bush's action came shortly after the Senate, on a voice vote, gave final congressional approval to a measure that would provide the government with funding for the next seven days and delay implementation of automatic across-the-board spending cuts required by the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings law. Hours earlier, the House had voted 300 to 113 to approve the legislation.</br></br>But without Bush's signature, the measure could not take effect, meaning there were no funds to operate most of the government as of midnight Friday.</br></br>Lawmakers rushed the bill through Congress in an attempt to keep the government running while they continued efforts to assemble a compromise budget package that would reduce the deficit by roughly $500 billion over the next five years, a package the White House says is needed to prevent economic chaos.</br></br>But Bush, in a statement read last night by White House press secretary Marlin Fitzwater, said he would "not be a party" to what he said were efforts by Congress to "once again put off meeting this responsibility for a few more days." Bush said it was "deeply discouraging" that Congress and the administration could not agree on a budget.