Gingrich Issues Threat to Delay Mexico Aid Bill

House Speaker Newt Gingrich, engaging in brinkmanship with President Clinton and his congressional allies Friday, threatened to delay consideration of the Administration’s Mexico aid package until Democrats stop stalling action on key GOP objectives.

Seeking to regain control of the legislative agenda after two days of sparring with Democrats, Gingrich said that the House will not take up the Mexico aid issue until after it has voted on a bill that would bar unfunded federal mandates and a constitutional amendment to balance the budget. Both measures are central promises in the House Republicans’ 10-point “contract with America” campaign manifesto.

Congressional Democrats have threatened to extend debate on both measures. They have sought to offer no fewer than 150 amendments on the bill that would make it more difficult for Congress to pass laws requiring states to spend money to meet federal mandates and 37 amendments for the balanced-budget legislation.

Gingrich made clear Friday that enacting the GOP’s contract is more important to Republicans than acting quickly to shore up Mexico’s foundering economy. If Democrats would drop most of their proposed amendments to Republican legislation, he said, Republicans will find it easier to move quickly on aid to Mexico.

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“We are prepared to be helpful (to Clinton) within the framework of the contract,” Gingrich said. But he left no doubt that Republicans, not Democrats, would dictate the timing of the Mexico aid bill.

Escalating the wrangling that began this week, Gingrich labeled Democratic “bitter-enders” who are using “dilatory tactics” to block the GOP from carrying out its ambitious 100-day legislative agenda. And he pointedly reminded the White House that Clinton has an obligation to discipline his troops on Capitol Hill and to round up at least half the Democrats’ votes for a Mexican aid package before House Republicans will move on the proposal.

Gingrich maintained that he is fully prepared to act quickly on the Administration’s loan guarantees to Mexico but claimed that Clinton had permitted Democrats on Capitol Hill to stray, delaying congressional consideration.

“It’s not our fault that this Administration can’t get its ducks in a row,” he said.

Gingrich’s criticism was echoed Friday by a California Democrat, who argued that Clinton’s commitment to the aid package is insufficient, endangering its prospects on Capitol Hill.

“I don’t see the fervor in the President, the fire in the belly,” said Rep. Esteban E. Torres (D-La Puente). “The President has to send that message out.”

Unless Clinton mounts a campaign as vigorous as the one he pursued to pass the North American Free Trade Agreement, Torres said, prospects for the aid package will continue to be “dicey.”

The White House responded by stepping up its show of support for the aid and playing down the threats from Gingrich, insisting that the Speaker was not qualifying his support for the deal.

Since Gingrich’s last meeting with Clinton late last week, “every indicator that we’ve had since then remains that the Speaker has been committed,” said Mike McCurry, the White House press secretary. The White House said Gingrich aides reaffirmed that commitment in conversations with presidential aides Friday.

The White House also intensified its public relations efforts on behalf of the deal, trotting out Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin; Laura D’Andrea Tyson, who chairs the White House Council of Economic Advisers, and two members of Congress who voted against the North American Free Trade Agreement--Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Sander M. Levin (D-Mich.)--to speak in favor of the Mexican aid deal.

Rubin insisted that the deal has “substantial momentum.” Tyson warned that if the deal is not approved, the ripple effect on other developing nations could shave 1% off the U.S. gross domestic product for the next several years.

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Even so, a leading Senate Republican announced Friday that he would not support a Mexican loan guarantee program unless it requires a sweeping overhaul of Mexico’s system of monetary controls, ensures that the process of turning state-owned industries over to private interests is accelerated and institutes a tightened system of assurances that the United States will be paid back if Mexico defaults on its $4 billion in loans.

Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.) told reporters Friday that he is “not willing . . . to transfer the determination of the viability of these reforms to one person, with that person being Bill Clinton.”

Gramm said that lawmakers must not settle for a simple presidential certification that Mexico is making progress in these areas.

Times staff writers Paul Richter and James Gerstenzang contributed to this story.