House votes $18.3 billion to finish S&L cleanup.

WASHINGTON -- The House approved new funding for failed savings and loans by a six-vote margin, 214 to 208, setting the stage for enactment of the money bill before the Resolution Trust Corp. loses authority to take on new cases at the end of the month.

The House and Senate are expected to meet in conference to iron out differences between their respective bills. The House appointed conferees after the vote and a spokesman for the Senate Banking Committee said the conference could begin next week.

Both chambers approved $18.3 billion in new funding for the RTC, and both agreed to give the agency additional time to take on new cases.

Funding Halved

But the House whittled down its authorization for the Savings Association Insurance Fund to $8 billion from the $16 billion approved by the banking committee. The Senate had approved $16 billion.

The House also approved a tough set of conditions that must be met before any money can be released to SAIF. Many thrift industry executives believe those conditions are so severe as to have the effect of denying SAIF any money under the bill.

Even so, Republicans hammered away at the measure as an $18.3 billion giveaway of money to an agency that they said already has adequate resources to finish its work.

"We just plain don't think the RTC needs the money," said Rep. Bill McCollum, R-Fla., who led GOP opposition to the funding package.

GAO Figures Cited

Rep. McCollum told lawmakers that the General Accounting Office says the RTC needs about $12 billion. He said the agency has $7 billion in reserves that could be used for resolutions.

In addition, he said, the agency has $38 billion in assets that it can borrow against, and a $5 billion line of credit from Treasury that could be used in a pinch.

However, Democrats said the agency needs the money and tried to reassure colleagues that the funding package was the last money the administration would seek for failed thrifts.

"This bill is called the RTC Completion Act for a reason," said Rep. Stephen L. Neal, D-N.C., who managed the bill on the House floor.

"We mean to say to everyone that if you pass this, you are not going to have to vote on it ever again."

"This is a dose of castor oil," added Rep. Butler Derrick, D-S.C.

"We must accept the responsibility and take our medicine. Nobody likes that, but there is a certain responsibility that goes with the right we have been given to govern."

RTC funding has always been a tough vote in the House, and the Democratic leadership has resisted floor action for months while it sought assurances that Rep. Neal and Banking Committee Chairman Henry B. Gonzalez, D-Tex., had the votes.

Last week, Rep. Neal and Rep. Gonzalez worked out a compromise with two key Republicans -- Rep. Jim Leach of Iowa and Rep. Richard Baker of Louisiana -- that trimmed SAIF funding and addressed minority contracting procedures that Republicans have portrayed as quota requirements.

The compromise, which was adopted as an amendment, gave the RTC until April 1, 1994, to take on new cases, and requires the agency to cease operation's altogether nine months later, a year earlier than under current law.

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