By TOM RAUM / Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Both sides were stepping up a lobbying blitz on the eve of House debate over whether to liberalize trade ties with China. Supporters cautiously predicted victory, while labor unions and other opponents insisted the battle was not over.
With 218 votes needed for passage, the Clinton administration and its allies in Congress were believed to be eight to 10 votes short.
"We feel it's working our way," Rep. Robert Matsui, D-Calif., the administration's point man among Democrats, said late Monday.
Attention shifts today to the House Rules Committee, which will frame the terms and length of Wednesday's debate. Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif., the committee chairman, said he hopes for a final vote on Wednesday as well.
Both Democratic and Republican vote counters said the outcome may not be known until the final House roll call is actually under way. Both sides fished in a dwindling pool of undecided members.
China trade advocates -- which includes much of corporate America -- suggested they would prevail if they could just obtain the support of at least half the remaining fence sitters. But no one suggested the vote would be anything other than extremely close.
"We are getting close," President Clinton said in a Monday night NBC interview. "I am optimistic, but boy, we have got a lot of work to do. It's not done yet."
Vice President Al Gore, meanwhile, told a union group that he knows organized labor opposes the bill but "I don't share that view."
"I strongly support normal trade relations with China because I believe it is right for America's economy and right for the cause of reform in China," the Democratic presidential candidate told about 150 United Food and Commercial Workers members in Washington to lobby against the measure.
"Neither side has the votes now," asserted Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., a leading opponent.
The bill would grant China permanent normal trading relations as part of its impending entry into the World Trade Organization, the Geneva-based organization that sets rules for trade and adjudicates disputes among members.
In return for America's support for its bid to join the WTO, China would dismantle barriers that U.S. corporations and farmers have long complained about.
China will enter the WTO whatever happens.
In related matters Monday:
--Wolf made public a letter from the General Accounting Office, the investigatory branch of Congress, suggesting that a group formed by the Clinton administration to help lobby for the bill may have violated a federal anti-lobbying law. GAO General Counsel Robert P. Murphy cited a single e-mail message from a unit of the China Trade Relations Group to two farmers' organizations urging their members to contact lawmakers in support of the legislation. However, Murphy said a "negligible" amount of federal funds was involved and that the violation "was minimal and does not warrant further action on our part or a referral to the Justice Department."
Still, Wolf, said, "the law is clear about using federal employees and federal resources for lobbying Congress -- it's illegal."
-- A U.S. International Trade Commission report indicates the China trade bill would make the already huge U.S. trade deficit with China even worse, not better. That deficit hit a record $68.7 billion last year, the largest for any country other than Japan. U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky, who requested the review, called the finished product "a very incomplete study, and to be frank, not much utilized." But opponents used the report to project that the China deal would result in the loss of 872,000 American jobs over the next decade.
An Associated Press survey showed that as of late Monday, about 80 House members still wanted to be listed as "undecided." However, vote counters on both sides said the actual undecided vote -- counting those that have given private pledges -- was closer to 15-20.
Supporters on Monday picked up at least two formerly undecided Republicans -- Tom Campbell of California and Jim DeMint of South Carolina. Today, they expected to win the endorsement of Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., said Democratic source who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Opponents, meanwhile, picked up Republican Reps. Steven C. LaTourette of Ohio and Merrill Cook of Utah.
"I decided to listen to my conscience and my district and vote 'no,'" LaTourette said.
The House Rules Committee was expected to merge the permanent trade relations bill with two measures designed to make the legislation more palatable to wavering members. These are proposals by Reps. Sander Levin, D-Mich., and Doug Bereuter, R-Neb., for a commission to monitor human rights in China and for more protection to U.S. companies from surges in Chinese imports.:
