THE WEEK: MAY 21-27

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NATION

ANOTHER BALANCED-BUDGET YEA

The Senate adopted its version of a balanced-budget resolution, but not before exposing a deep and potentially embarrassing rift in Republican ranks over the issue of tax cuts. Nearly half the G.O.P. Senators joined all their Democratic colleagues to defeat a $300 billion set of tax breaks proposed by presidential aspirant Phil Gramm and patterned after a recently approved House version. Opting for a vague promise of future tax cuts if a balanced budget yields extra savings, the Senate approved by a vote of 57 to 42 a somewhat less draconian program of spending cuts than did the House: $1 trillion worth of savings over seven years vs. the House's $1.4 trillion. Still to come: protracted wrangling over what programs will actually be cut.

VETO POLITICS

A week after his first concrete veto threat (against certain spending cuts in the current budget), President Clinton took aim at two more congressional proposals. G.O.P. leaders in the House postponed a vote on their foreign-aid bill after the President blasted its cuts and its "isolationist" policy directives as a "frontal assault" on presidential authority. Meanwhile, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman warned that a presidential veto would await any attempt to revamp the federal food-stamp program into a block-grant package to the states.

TERM LIMITS UNCONSTITUTIONAL

In a landmark decision that invalidates measures in 23 states, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 that states do not have the power to impose term limits on members of Congress, and neither does the Congress itself. Term limits, said the court, must be imposed by constitutional amendment. Proponents vowed to press for passage of such an amendment despite a decisive rejection by the House in March.

CONTROVERSIAL NO COMMENT

The court also produced a noteworthy nondecision on affirmative action. The Justices declined to review, and thus let stand without comment, a lower federal court ruling that invalidated a University of Maryland scholarship program intended solely for blacks.

FOSTER: ONE DOWN, ONE TO GO

The Senate committee charged with reviewing Dr. Henry Foster's controversial nomination for Surgeon General voted 9 to 7 to recommend his confirmation. Foster's name now goes to the full Senate, where his prospects remain uncertain.

WHITE HOUSE SHOOTOUT

For the fifth time since September, security at or near the White House was breached when a man, armed with an unloaded revolver, jumped over the mansion's fence late Tuesday night. The suspect, Leland Modjeski, was tackled by a Secret Service agent; both men were wounded by the gunfire of a second agent. Modjeski, an unemployed onetime psychology student, was charged with felony assault and firearms violations. Officials said the President was never in any danger and may not have even been a target. Modjeski, they indicated, appeared to be psychologically troubled. Three days later, another man, Andrew Jopling, jumped the fence near the mansion's tourist entrance and was immediately arrested.

THE OKLAHOMA BOMBING CASE