THE WEEK

NATION

Funded Mandates

The House and Senate both gave overwhelming final approval to a bill that would require the Federal Government to pay the tab for many new rules and regulations it imposes upon state and local governments. The legislation will become the second provision of the G.O.P. "Contract with America" to become law if President Clinton signs it, as is expected (the first was a measure requiring Congress to abide by the labor and civil rights laws it has imposed on other employers).

Here Come the Cuts

Turning to more contentious fare, House Republicans struggled and ultimately succeeded in passing $17 billion worth of cuts from the current budget. The bill, which was vigorously attacked by Democrats as an assault on the nation's children and poor, would slash funding for a host of housing, drug, job and education programs-including President Clinton's pet project, AmeriCorps. The Administration indicated that the President would veto the measure if it survives the Senate.

G.O.P. Loses One

Senate Democrats flexed their muscles and forced Republican colleagues to abandon an effort to overturn President Clinton's striker-protection order. The directive bars federal agencies from doing business with companies that hire permanent replacement workers during a strike. Opponents fell two votes short of stopping a Democratic filibuster.

Cisneros Under Glass

Attorney General Janet Reno formally requested the appointment of yet another independent counsel--this time to investigate Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros' messy financial arrangements with a former mistress. Though Cisneros has previously admitted the affair and payments to the woman, Reno concluded that the Secretary misrepresented the size of the payments to fbi agents during a background check. Cisneros denied any wrongdoing and at the President's urging announced that he would not step down.

Pena off the Hook

By contrast, the Attorney General had good news for Transportation Secretary Federico Pena. Reno called off an inquiry that had been scrutinizing a contract won by Pena's former investment firm shortly after he became Secretary; the Justice Department had also been looking into whether the city of Denver, during Pena's mayoralty, had misused federal funds intended for the city's new airport. Reno said there was no credible evidence that Pena had violated any federal laws.

The Simpson Trial

The O.J. Simpson murder trial provided armchair lawyers with a week of high courtroom drama as Detective Mark Fuhrman coolly parried defense attorney F. Lee Bailey's taunting cross-examination. Fuhrman repeatedly denied having made racist statements; he also denied suggestions that he planted a bloody glove on Simpson's estate to frame the football hero. The high stakes prompted Bailey and prosecutor Marcia Clark to trade playground-ready insults, leading Judge Lance Ito to ask for an apology from each attorney and to order them not to "engage in gratuitous personal attacks upon each other." At week's end yet another juror was dismissed, the fifth so far. Reports said the man, of mixed racial background, was suspected of writing about the case; he was replaced with an alternate, a white woman.

The Sheik's Trial