Budget, Tax Bills Get Splashy GOP Send-off

WASHINGTON — President Clinton intends to sign the budget and tax bills passed by Congress on Tuesday during a White House ceremony at 11 a.m. EDT, White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said Friday.

Congressional leaders, including House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), have been invited to attend the ceremony, the White House said.

Republicans forwarded the bills to the White House on Friday in a campaign-style rally replete with a gospel choir and T-shirts featuring Ronald Reagan.

“Our hope is, as long as there is a Republican Congress, there will be a tax cut every year,” Gingrich told a crowd of lawmakers, staff and tourists in the Capitol’s ornate Statuary Hall.

Bill enrollments usually are routine affairs, but not this event, attended by well-scrubbed young people wearing T-shirts reading “1997 GOP Tax Cuts--The Reagan Legacy,” with a smiling image of the former president on the back.

The event concluded with the First Assembly of God Choir of Alexandria, Va., performing a rendition of the 1960s soul hit “Signed, Sealed and Delivered”--a slogan adopted by the GOP for approving the tax bill.