Clinton OKs 3rd Stopgap Funding Bill

WASHINGTON —  President Clinton signed a third temporary funding bill Friday to keep the U.S. government open through Nov. 5, giving the White House and the Republican-led Congress more time to work out a budget deal.

White House spokesman Joe Lockhart told reporters Clinton signed the bill, known as a “continuing resolution” in Washington budget jargon, before leaving for a one-day trip to Philadelphia and Atlanta.

Since the Oct. 1 start of the fiscal year, Clinton has signed two other stopgap funding bills to keep the federal government running as he and Congress clash over the 13 spending bills that normally fund the government’s operations.

Clinton has signed eight of these bills but threatened to veto the rest unless Congress meets his demands, which include funding more teachers and police officers and dropping legislative language that he says would gut environmental protections.