The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour

the pittsburgh good evening i'm robert macneil a new year and on july in washington after a summary of them is this tuesday on the allman has the senate debate over the balanced budget amendment tom barrett reports on the opening finally of the denver airport will fall away discussion about the financial health of the us airline industry jeffrey kate chronicles california struggle against bulger voting and we close with an update on the fighting in croatia funding for the macneil lehrer newshour has been provided by the archer

daniels midland company with edm ingredients in thousands of consumer products it's no wonder of the world and by new york life yet another example of the wise investment philosophy new york life has been following for the last one hundred and fifty years and by the corporation for public broadcasting and by the annual financial support from viewers like you today was the day of the big vote on the balanced budget amendment and the senate on the allman reports today was supposed to be the day of the vote but it didn't happen that right under the sense that a resistance and alun the senate majority leader robert dole postponed the final vote on the balanced budget amendment because republicans were still one vote short of the sixty seven needed to pass an amendment to the constitution as an important role if i thought there was one more

vote tomorrow morning or two more votes or three more votes for next week and make every effort i could disappear those votes amendment supporters will try to find the extra vote but tomorrow but most democrats are positioned behind president clinton will again today restated his opposition to the balanced budget amendment i'm willing to work with him but this balanced budget amendment does not and with the american people still don't know what i am so scared in this dilemma what to have education so what had happened that medicare they still don't know anything about what the details are the activity in the senate upstaged action in the house today where republicans continue to push through elements of their contract with america and passed a bill putting tighter controls on the issuing of federal health and safety regulations if the bill reaches his desk where president clinton has indicated he might veto it in this country more than thirty four thousand civilian jobs will be eliminated in a dozen states

artistic would be texas alabama new mexico and pennsylvania defense secretary kerry who announced the plans that it would save up to four billion dollars annually by nineteen ninety nine the list must be reviewed by an independent commission and then be approved or rejected it in its entirety by the president and congress the defense secretary also said today the mission in somalia was going very well more than eighteen hundred us marines in four hundred italian soldiers are there to help evacuating un peacekeepers another twelve thousand troops from seven countries will assist in the evacuation the mission is expected to take less than a week the denver airport finally opened for business today transportation secretary federico pena a former mayor of denver joined state and local officials and greeting the airports first passenger flight airport was sixteen months later an opening and ran more than two billion dollars over budget were more on the story later in the program reserve chairman alan greenspan endorsed a greater role for banks in the securities market

congress is considering a bill which would allow banks to deal in securities the first time since the nineteen thirties currently only a handful of banks have limited permission to do so but there would also make it easier for strong banks to get into section on banking areas as insurance sales greenspan spoke during testimony before a house committee let me be clear that the board's position in favor of expanding the permissible range of affiliations are back in organizations is not a reflection a concern for banks their management or their stockholders of the board support the expansion a promise of our activities reflects the bizarre ago they were moving out faded restrictions that served no useful purpose that the greece economic efficiency and that as a result women choices and options for the consumer of financial services president clinton today about the brady

gun control law will not be repealed you spoke to mark the law's first anniversary was different was joined by james brady for whom the law was named brady was wounded in the nineteen eighty one assassination attempt on president reagan the law requires a five day waiting period and of background checks for gun purchases republicans have threatened the robot lady and other time lamar alexander today became the second official republican candidate for president he was education secretary in the bush administration and the governor of tennessee before that he made his announcement in his hometown of marital to say wearing a red plaid shirt he wore during his race for governor he said he was running against the arrogance of the federal government where i come from at almost everything to do with where i stayed because i believe that parents and teachers in maryland national across this country no more about their children than anyone in washington dc i would abolish the united states department of education and give you the responsibility for making that

decision for you know what they do and we know what to do i would not just that's welfare in washington dc i would end it and will the dollars back to you we know what to do i have a short list of two hundred billion dollars of programs that we would move out of washington to give the dollars and the decisions for you because you know what to do and that the bubble is the arrogance of washington dc and the answer is the character of archie then this campaign is for you and my friends i invite you to come all a grand jury in arkansas today indicted a former banker in the whitewater affair neil ainley faces five felony charges including conspiracy to defraud the federal government he was president of a bank that lent money into president clinton's ninety nine a campaign for governor of arkansas all the indictment accuses him of failing to report large cash

withdrawals by the campaign at camp the campaign itself was not accused in the indictment the brother of the former president of mexico has been arrested for the assassination of a former top government official raul salinas is accused of masterminding the murder last september of the number two man in the ruling party his brother carlos salinas who was president at the time left office last december about a dozen other people have already been arrested in the case which is said to involve a political power struggle and that's it for the most honored tonight now it's on to the big balanced budget amendment vote the denver airport authority airline industry that challenged a motorboat named anna croatia at first tonight a showdown in the senate over the balanced budget amendment the house passed the measure a month ago it would amend the constitution to require the federal budget to be balanced by the year two thousand and two reports on what's been a wrenching

day for some senators most senators positions on the balanced budget amendment had been stated previously thompson of tennessee was four or so when the wine of ohio and snowe of maine in fact all eleven freshman republicans took a turn once again declaring their support for the balanced budget amendment we're here because we got the message there because the american people sent us amish it centers on a mission they come and leaner smaller more efficient and that this about what's in them is the vehicle by which all that happens and it wasn't just a freshman with the exception of oregon's mark hatfield every republican supported it we need a cost just one minute the bus a bunch of advice and embrace of were all happy about i just want to point out to my colleague colleagues house fence of our debate has been within thirty days since we started we're not the thirtieth day and we

just in the last thirty days of twenty five billion dollars for either that dodd of connecticut barbers of arkansas art moynihan of new york and robert byrd of west virginia were among a core group of democrats against the balanced budget amendment has thirteen thousand seven hundred and forty four votes thirty seven years ago this does not count for more than four hundred votes that i cast the nail the bottle before it came to the sun but barring not this is the most important vote online political career on capitol hill but there were twelve democrats including simon of illinois and robb of virginia who broke ranks with their colleagues and teamed with republicans to provide nearly all the sixty seven votes needed to amend the constitution merely but not quite five democrats had not made up their minds before today and held the

key to final passage or defeat but this morning sam nunn of georgia had said he would vote for it if his amendment barring courts from any involvement in future tax and spending measures to balance their budget wasn't true and it was mr crowley louisiana is john breaux also announced he would support the balanced budget amendment but only to ensure that the states would be allowed to determine its future an automated justify not even voting centers proposal to my state of wheezing out in the various other states for them to innovate and a vote on this measure i must be convinced that on its face they're public policy that it was a guy here in washington but the north dakota's byron dorgan announced he would vote no and kentucky's wendell ford appeared to be leaning that way as well although ford could be heard on the senate floor agonizing over his decision

that's the way it went all day until this evening when just minutes before the scheduled vote was to take place the senate majority leader robert dole put the proceedings on a whole i suggest the absent or one thirty seven minutes of fate of the balanced budget amendment hung and suspense as bowl and other supporters of the amendment tried to convince democrat kent conrad of north dakota to vote with them conrad headwaters that didn't get language protecting social security written into the balanced budget amendment he was going to vote no and amendment supporters were able to change with my dog returned to the floor and postponed that vote until at least tomorrow we still think there is some chance of getting this is all about mr morrison well i have sixty seven votes or maybe more those move infuriated robert byrd and so it was down to an insight and insatiable desire to get a vote for a victory that

tampering with the constitution of the united states there's no place for deal making back our vote no wonder the people have such low estimation of the congress and what about the eighty percent american people you think they care were reported seven or seven thirty or ten o'clock the morning at present one thousand and the bass you think they feel as a center left virginia fails absolutely not ironically many supporters of the balanced budget amendment had complained about the likely or we debate on the issue but tonight they're glad to have at least one more day of discussions about the balanced budget amendment still had denver's new airport the ailing airlines motor voting in california and a quarter update now a new airport

animal problem the new airport is in denver and an open today the old problem is the financial situation of the nation's airline industry will take them one at a time beginning with this report from tom bearden in denver there was a strong sense that a milestone had been passed when the first plane pulled up to the gate at the shiny new terminal at denver international airport there was one small fish wave rows up and i have to throw the plane to navigate but reports are virtually everything else went smoothly despite light snow and reduced visibility gave city officials the chance to point out that this kind of weather is why denver needed a new airport in the first place stapleton on a day like this you'd be landing about thirty two planes an hour this morning with has cut a weather on insulin landing there were allied landing night to an hour as three times the rate by eleven o'clock there were no major glitches and the pressure was off near wellington where it really very yes

and i think all of you have probably they can appeal and the same thing's all of us good chuckle of it so yes while it's still really and more than that it's working well after a sixteen month delay and more than a billion dollars over budget denver international airport was finally opened the airport has been controversial since conception critics have said it's too expensive to be profitable and too far from now most bags are moving by old fashioned cubs and cards even though the city has spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars on a high tech baggage system working out the bugs in that system is the reason the airport opening with the leg but it isn't fully operational yet for now it only serves one concourse instead of three and only carries out pound bags the part that is working seem to operate smoothly today twenty one years ago another

airport opened on the prairie between dallas and fort worth texas was just as cutting edge justice controversy with denver international and just as much the focus of high hopes and strong emotions understanding what happened in dallas is important in trying to fathom what the future holds for denver international fact then they said the dallas fort worth airport was too big too expensive and too far from town its high tech baggage system didn't work in the beginning and neither did the people mover threats mostly forgotten now after two decades of wear and tear the sparkle is gone no one in dallas thinks of dallas fort worth is either a utopia or a disaster anymore it's just the airport with events a big surprises along the way robert album helped write an early study on the economic potential avenue denver airport for the chamber of commerce i live in dallas about thirty years ago for a short time and i saw a dour set in the mid sixties as sort of a cow town that wanted to be a cosmopolitan town and it really was today the city has a world class cosmopolitan

area i believe to a large degree and i think the dallas fort worth people will agree that that has happened because they have a gift that is sitting out there airports have always been seen as economic engines the cities of dallas and fort worth are certainly thinking of new jobs will they put aside their long rivalry the sixties and began planning their van biggest airport in the world with something more than just airport jobs it turned out the dallas fort worth attracted whole new kinds of businesses are kind of go getting cutting edge firms that place a high value on air travel in time that transform the region's very consciousness of itself jeffrey fagan has watched it happen is the airport's director look around a bit of a helicopter from the control tower just stand the horizon you will see nothing but businesses rooftops of businesses in and this is your city skyline of bells for that has grown up over the years and we feel that this airport has played a very very

significant role in another world growth and bill we have found that their development like thinner europe for sam over the years you know our fence line is the final boundary now three talks with a number of housing developments within a number of commercial industrial buildings that have stratospheric for some vfw has been enormously beneficial to the local economy but that doesn't mean everyone loves that in some ways it's an airport on the wrong side of history it was designed so people could get out of their cars and walk a relatively short distance and again when it comes to changing planes which is what most people do here in this year of thousands votes it maximizes the war and minimizes officials i generally have to go about thirty gates to get from the regular aircraft to the career track and you get on one of those trains it's always overcrowded you're perspiring that i needed to the other and you get down to the floor and it was to try to get into those plans it was not designed for that aircraft

changes the irony is that those terminals were supposed to be the last word and passenger convenience dallas fort worth thought they'd build a lot of that other is a master plan actually called or thirteen horseshoe shaped terminals are located along international park was and the racial master plan also have the six runways are easier today us and beside one way that was originally an executive at issue in way that was six thousand feet and on the west side too long way as a navy configuration these stole a very short about landing variation on the west side he's tall airliners never happen executive jets never became big users of dallas fort worth and instead of building thirteen four shoe terminals dallas fort worth is considering building a new terminal that looks a lot like denver that and the two runways have a projected three and a half billion dollar price tag

which is a large fraction of the entire cost of denver international all of this happened largely because the airline industry changed beyond recognition dallas fort worth of the future belonged to lots of medium sized airlines in nineteen seventy for its biggest airline tenet was brennan remember brad of other talents were used there are plenty of those cases international law denver believes it learned from dallas fort worth sister denver international is supposed to be the ultimate are therefore three concourses connected by an underground train maximum efficiency in changing planes but in some ways history has also already passed by denver it was planted a time when the old stapleton airport was home to three airline hobbs united front here and continental by the time construction began stapleton was down to two was once you're gone out of business and continental abandon its member of last

year and some of denver international's new gates are going back oh clapper is a member of the colorado for a business group that was instrumental in conceiving and promoting denver international the risk with this report is also a lot of history i think again you can't know perfectly and that maybe the airlines have a whole different way of doing their business and then airplanes of different and they take off and land in a different way but this airport was built with flexibility in mind doesn't bother you that one of the major justification is for the supporters of the free well i wish you were different but yes you have just as we said before you have to live with what the realities of the world ar and i think the celibate this airport is going to survive very well denver's planners know they can't control the vagaries of the airline business any better than dallas but there was one lesson in dallas fort worth past they were determined not to follow a lesson in how to avoid the problem of development surrounding the

airport and choking off future growth dallas planners thought they would solve the problem by building dallas fort worth on a vast eighteen thousand acre track twenty one years later europe or feel squeezed planes are landing alongside earth movers as dallas fort worth levels the ground for a seventh one way one never envisioned in the original master plan here portrayed a hundred and fifty million dollars to either buy our compensate homeowners in the approach that now they're planning another runway on the west side of the airport he approaches would send jets roaring overtones that didn't exist when the airport opened homeowners in the surrounding communities many of whom or their jobs to be a lot of in fighting in the runway in court for years plans would also dropped very low over the quaint old main street of a nearby town of great fight to historic landmark and a local tourist attraction refined mayor feels betrayed every meeting a peaceful and that the two

thousand one year master plan would be a multiple build low for the airport we need to build our city around the airport land in terms of land use louisville versus bad boy you know this is what happened i didn't really like it or not i think of cities around airports that recognize and have a plan for the fact the airport's growing had to expand and now they'll separate from management economic activity as the oldest story in the airport business isn't it actually every airport rally countries face with encroachment from the french news and he can't sing that line up land yeah we have a lot more land and their solution was to build an even bigger airport one twice as big as dallas fort worth fifty three square miles when we went to dallas and we went to atlanta and to other

airports to new york for example and talk to the people there they all said you can never build too much airport yeah twenty one years ago dallas fort worth began what turned out to be the impossible job of living up to all its promise what came true and even exceeded expectations some plans didn't pan out and had to be changed that may be the most important lesson dallas fort worth can teach as denver international begins its own journey into an unpredictable future now to the airline industry that uses denver and all other airports is that industry as in as precarious financial shape as it always appears debate and if so why we ask that and other questions now of john landry president of the air transport association a trade group representing the major commerce two airlines randy babbitt an airline pilot for twenty six years who is president of the pilots union the airline pilots association ted harrison ford professor of airline management at the university of maryland he was a consultant to a recent presidential commission that

examined the airline industry and edward starkman a white a wall street analyst who covers the airline industry for a switcher diagnosis of the airline industry still threatened the airline industry has been sick for some time as a result of no one be regulation the denver airport for example is as a symptom of that the ways of the denver airport being developed as a young in response to a hub and spoke lastly which has largely failed the airline industry there are signs today that the industry is finally getting its act together it's going to get its cost down and give the consumer a cost related more acceptable product of that has been that in the past decade or so and i believe that he had a future the industry is brighter than it has been in the past decade so chemistry but coming out we're coming out of that but we're by no means out of the woods as yet where we just passed through the worst period the worst financial performance that we've ever had as an industry in the

history of aviation we lost twelve point eight billion dollars over the four year period nineteen ninety three nineteen ninety three nineteen ninety four we have a very modest collected pop pop it delivered two hundred million dollars at that they didn't take his sixty years to make up for the previous four i'm melissa block on a new ui dying industry a growing industry an auto industry a great industry what is and it's an industry that clearly has had its difficulties and i think both the previous speakers richard phillips of the difficulties we are seeing now some rationalization capacity i think that was one of the big problems we transitioned from a regulated industry to it de regulated we going to cope with some of the costs are coming to remain without even having the right size airplanes monitoring the rights to cities at the same thing at the right time is that in an abundance of court people in good times the industry tends to be hyper cyclic and when when good times when good economic times come around everybody wants to be

an airline business so there's lots of competition so that means that with all that competition no one is really going to make any money and then times economic times or bad those carriers fall and there's not enough money for even those who have the ballot east remains so and good times in summary they're breaking bad times those along on the stark and doesn't look a mile from the wall street perspective are we looking at a diner industry are recovering industry but the grid that they're looking at as a recovering industry but the one that still and rehabilitation and will be for some time the biggest challenge for us carriers now is getting the cost down to competitive levels kerry cannot be all things to all passengers and we have upstart carriers such as valujet a twenty year old harrison just southwest of very specialized things in very efficient ways and a very successful at major carriers would have to decide what they can and can't be profitable start an explainer started with you explain to your true that those of

us who are not experts in airline industry just lie on our blind servant master all but told from beer news the words to describe what it's like to go to an airport and fly with on the ballast that you could say about any air force but people everywhere you can't you can't park you have stayed in line to get on applying all the seats are taken we get on there and yet the airline is in trouble and most places have to sell a lot of product and now you don't really well what's the problem with airline industry well unfortunately traffickers and pedophiles an airline's revenue that pays the bills and while for instance just now in january we had domestic traffic up over eight percent yield or the average fare the people that was down about eight point three percent so revenue is flat while the cost generally in free so i as far as crazy it sure does and that it's what the industry has been trying to fight for a lot of years american if you remember back to nineteen ninety two introduce what it called value pricing which was an attempt to assert a new fair strategy and be very out front about what the fare was going to be and do away with a lot of this

now but as many of their initiative that we did not owe to wonder why do your company represents twenty six largest commercial airlines in the united states while unique hall people for less money than it cost a whole well it's a very bargain hungry traveling public out there now at ninety two percent of the people in those of the passengers and those terminals we're talking about are traveling a discount fares we had ninety two percent is two percent or a discount fares and the average depth of the discounted sixty five percent from the full fare that's because people are hunting for bargains and as mr starkman has said we have to cut our costs and increase our productivity that's the only road back to profitability you very much as they did that the prices of gotta stay where they are that they be our lives it has gotten they graduated to deliver the same service at a cheaper cost well you know my colleague jim webb is really split and i spent on things and i can appreciate that

it's not really a revenue problem it's a cause problems and it's a cost problem the results from the yeah from the crazy quilt work pattern of carbon spokesman of about the end of the regulation enable me give you weren't me give you an example you talk about the zoo airport nobody wants to be a hub airport passengers the wannabe then the pilots for one of the other people want to be going to their destination they don't want make internet stops playing musical chairs jump on airplanes but these are the patterns that developed in response to one vital competition and in the end the regulation the fact of the matter is the airplane the commercial whale i don't want a man's greatest inventions as an inherent competitive advantage of being able to fly non stop very very fast ten times faster than any other point any other mode of transportation without any securities diversions point a point they wreck why we don't just play through hub and spoke system as we are we routinely have thousand mile journeys turned into fifteen under two thousand mile journeys wasting

time feel congesting the airwaves congesting the hub airports cars all the airplanes land at the same time and take over the same time creating missile and what this does to airline costs is an astronomical the allies need to get back to a more linear system of air travel as responsive not only to the needs of the consumer but to the inner competitive advantage of the airport that makes sense to look out on and if it doesn't the fashion and i recognize and the people are you know the airline pilot recognize that the hub and spoke environment those creating opportunities it brings together the permutations and all these other cities that might not command direct service director acknowledged that but the cost is high and i guess our biggest complaint is that a freighter taken place give me give me an example of a city that often thought that probably would not have a major airline service to get in the habit of that or you might have to go to minneapolis to go from one to the other they might not it and other chicago and go to the what is that and it's out of your

way that you might otherwise not be able it might be a two hour trip as opposed to a nonexistent trip some of the criticism of that by her shoulders it only earlier crews only flew five and half hours will actually they were on duty thirteen or fourteen hours in the day that they sat at the hubs while waiting in other words they came in and sent their two o'clock in the afternoon when the hub left again and so it's terribly nonproductive for the pilot i'm ashamed of the gate space but i recognize the other side of the equation that connects of permutations city birds it when otherwise exist is the great likelihood that they anticipate going to go back to a linear system from the hub and spoke never back to a volunteer system or certainly where the market is very well be and a city fair operations on the other hand those hobson's bugs and those systems daimler and so forth that passengers out there have many more flights to many

more destinations available to them today than they would have had under a linear root system there's a great convenience in terms of choice for the passengers out of those folks but do you agree with mr harris that that the hub and spoke system and also working with one that has said that it does raise the cost there's a cost but there's also a tremendous convenient there's no question in anyone's mind but what the greatest single beneficiary of the regulation has been the consumer that's one of the benefits that consumers have realized from deregulation of unspoken few what they have to realize is it's not really need your question we have a mix in this country of a linear richest man hub and spoke as soon as he gets upset what we haven't spoke does allow an airline to efficiently collect traffic from an enormous number of cities and connecting to another enormous range of cities what linear a service does is provide overflight of clubs where city paris can support that kind of service a trans can market the united states as an

example we got a nonstop from europe to orange county california because that market was very heavy through a hug southwest airlines operates virtually an entire linear linear root system even though they have cities of concentration so again it's not either or is it depends upon what is going to support the market and remember before the regulation we didn't have a linear a system that passenger from duluth probably haven't they can enjoy and connect in minneapolis from the north central to what the northwest so effective that a much more efficient let's go to spain on this either or famed the southwest model essays be the one it's disrupted a lot of folks say a lot of the large carriers worked out what is its future look at that look like at this point this darkened by southwest as with its twenty year history so far has a very bright future they are very particular why can they do it others cannot know they are very focused very specific about what they do they understand what their product is they understand their customers they don't try and get out of their niche and they're very focused

on treating of people extremely well and selecting them extremely well very highly paid employees these are not cheap employees but they're very productive the most productive in the domestic industry terms when you think of the southwest more model those spokes lanier says the welfare of course related for years and they are costly south where goods paper southwest does that reflect southwest cost to take you from guess it got us to houston were various and if there's one airline that has anything in common with the or alliances that we had on deregulation in nineteen seventy and in southwestern law in terms of its operating out of pricing philosophy cost related right and they're they're intent on earning money and when they earn money they can buy new equipment right they can provide those servers generally just give you a couple of couple of numbers here again and deference the gym when israel really good friend out our

rights and it talks about all these great service coming out of unspoken operations we have five minutes only five commercial airports past year it wasn't country or text their own rallies in helmand province only foreigners replacement value is in excess of a trillion dollars you can buy all the stock of all the major carriers on wall street a little more than twenty billion or two percent of the value of the system by public has no say in what service they gathered what fares are what rates as as a result of ella deregulation and of those five and seventy five airports across the country only three hundred have was jet jet service under the regulation has been replaced by small turboprops in many cases which which is a singular service to love and nowhere else why the public has suffered enormously they're as bad a year business has fled those areas of the country that have suffered that kind of service deterioration there's been a lot of fall out of deregulation that the bird that

has hurt a wide portion of this country you're a friend of his save me from my friend's birthday i would say that that in response to dad that those small aircraft that are serving from the small communities out there to hug are properly sized for those markets may therefore an economic cooperation the fact that they're properly sized helps to keep the fairs down and it offers also the guy the frequent service that you could never offered to those small communities with a jet airplane let's go back to the southwest of model of atlanta when you look to the future and leave their survival on various airlines that we'll have to get in the names and it wasn't going to survive the ones that follow the southwest mali that happened in a new one bradbury saw the southwest model in terms of the productivity of its workforce the productivity of its peak what that its aircraft and so forth is the envy of the rest of these members of the airline for charity they're

all trying to seek that level of productivity and that level of cost then they're so it i would say that yes southwest continues to be a model in terms of cost of productivity but i do believe you're still going to see an xo both point service announcements at the future and in terms of these other than the outcome of the big trunk airlines american airlines united etc what are they going to have to do to work and i could not have this continual fluctuation an option and ups and downs of the financial situation aware that the net good strides of the industry in general has tried realign its cost and i would be for a different second suggesting that the transition from regulating deregulate was easy own employees it was not it was a very difficult time a lot of careful bankrupt out of business mergers and it varied dramatically changed and are now coming to grips with the environment division manager in some places and philosophies yes southwest has a lot but there are a finite number of city pairs it can can accept

for that reason well i don't want to land on a particular character that you're going to find a blend of carriers that have a good domestic system at and republican then generates an international business growth today is an international markets and it lets you utilize an airplane for what is best designed to not go along with fast enough to sentence right the productivity of the pilots in the united states is comparable no one else where were the most productive pilots in terms of blocking our generation than any other country's pilots in the world to have a real competitive advantage we can be very competitive in the worldwide market mr stark there were you say that costs a fluctuation them and where were these big airline seven upon their cost savings are going to survive the night oh the good model where the cost savings is coming from his belt which has a program called leadership seven point five indicating unit cost and seven and have sets they are looking at every

nasa has breached state from four mile person flown one mother's cot and they are looking at every aspect of the operation the commission kept it was big news for the travel agency can in the last couple weeks is one of those moves putting a cap on the amount of commission it'll be paid to travel it and domestic so that's all part of vermont was all this mine appreciate given year to do that now the fight between california and the federal government over the motor voter law at issue is california's refusal to implement the national voter registration act of nineteen ninety three a case goes to court later this week on a job free playstation casey et los angeles has our report recovery in colorado as in the majority of states around the country

voters may register when they apply for driver's licenses the procedure complies with the national voter registration act of nineteen ninety three also known as the motor voter law by contrast this is where california keeps its motor voter forms twenty one million of them boxed up in a government warehouse a vivid symbol of the state's refusal to him clemente act evan asaf of the california department of motor vehicles dmv says complying with the act would be a costly undertaking in california seven million transactions a year at sixty seconds a transaction that's a hundred and twenty thousand hours six hundred ninety four months at fifty eight staff years of new people up in the attic to dmv panel motor voter and how much would that translate to in terms of money in terms of the staff costs along that's slightly over two million dollars a year california's republican governor pete wilson says the state should not be required to assume

such a financial burden i am very unhappy when any unfunded federal mandate is handed out by the federal government and i just do not intend that wilson's defiance of the act has led to a number of lawsuits voting rights groups are suing trying to force california to implement the and so is the us justice department's civil rights division and governor wilson has filed his own lawsuit trying to have the act declared unconstitutional yet signed by the president in may nineteen ninety three took effect at the beginning of this year it requires states to allow people to register to vote through the mail or when they apply for driver's licenses or social services there are also regulations which limit the poaching of voter registration rolls the main legal arguments put forth by california state officials is that the act violates the tenth amendment that amendment reserves for the state's those powers not explicitly delegated to the federal government i believe what we would say in this

california's we're standing up for what the stage version of our real friends the officer dan lundgren california's republican attorney general represents the governor in his lawsuit against the federal government the tenth amendment is supposed to be a restriction on the united states government is supposed to say that there are some things are left to the states and we believe in this area of the law this is one of those things the state's rights argument that the governor is dredging up in this case are identical to the arguments that southern governors made trying to stop the nineteen sixty five voting rights act either civil rights acts attempted to get a higher voter turnout higher registration all rights lawyer mark rosenbaum of the american civil liberties union argues the us constitution gives washington office party overall actions that's what article one section for the constitution is about a specific authorization to congress to make sure that elections fair

elections are run probably that's why congress was able to pass was involved in a major voting that's what congress has historically been able to pass voting rights watch this is an argument that has been generated by a political agenda rather than any sort of constitutional amendments lundgren does not dispute the existence of a political agenda he sees the lawsuit is part of the battle against unfunded federal mandates here we have a relatively new position in fact the newest version of an obligation on the stage without any funding and i guess you have a third of their california believe that enough was enough even though california is challenging a large federally funded agencies in the state are implementing it i have here i read on and the women infants and children program educators solicit disciplines to register to vote a nutrition education program is financed by the us government

recruiters for the us armed forces are also signing on potential voters witnesses are involved and sanger or we have the kurds who were much more of all felt would likely will vote some county departments aren't taking small steps to implement the act and registrars offices around california computer programs have been modified to comply with the acts report points the remaining information on those papers recent trading state funded agency personnel were assisting applicants in completing voter registration cards a videotape was prepared and distributed by the privately funded county clerks association to instruct the public and stuff about the new aca but state officials claim that fully implement the law so that voters could register that state agencies would cost eighteen to twenty million dollars a year us attorney general janet reno disputes those figures

at a press conference announcing justice department lawsuits against california and three other states deval patrick head of the civil rights division took on the cost issue he had not in this country to traditionally put a price tag on civil rights are only further into civil rights and that's what this is about well we disagree with the ministers that i hear arm we're saying that there is no showing whatsoever that the state of california has taken actions to and cast the truth we deprive people of the right to dissipate the political process if they can't show that then they cannot require you do precisely what it is they ask you to do if they want to buy into the program will pay for a force but bill price thinks there's another motive i think that the world is worried about is having more democrats registered prices chair of the california democratic party well i think it will mean more democrats because

you're reaching a generally i think the people who go to these offices arm and people who are in need of state services are up poor californians of those in the lower economic class on a lot of racial minorities on the end of those are traditionally traditionally on the other democratic voters the belief that democrats will benefit if more poor people registered to vote is commonly held by both democrats and republicans but the conventional wisdom is not supported by the research according to an autographed ms rothman is a professor at the university of california and an authority on voting patterns there will be more democrats in the potential pool than there used to be but not all of those new voters or potential voters rather than actually come to the polls the people who are going to be most affected by motor voter i look people in the middle people in the middle

basically people with our high school education but not a college degree those people are going to come out and turnout at the highest levels given the new increased opportunities for being registered to motor voter but those people are reagan democrats that is to say they are voters who politically in the united states have been at least over the last decade up for grabs so unpredictable in terms of what's so unpredictable in fact roffman says motor voter could favor republicans if new voters are swept up in the tide of gop popularity but as california challenges the federal government and the us soon is that state there's a movement in washington that they supersede all the court action some republican lawmakers are trying to overturn the act entirely late tonight another's a story about another potential war in the former

yugoslavia nearly four years ago the republican coalition declared its independence that set off a clash between serbs and croats fighting for possession of a croatian region known as un eventually brokered a ceasefire and sent peacekeeping troops to keep the warring factions separated at the moment an uneasy truce prevails that earlier this year a croatian president franjo tudjman said he would ask the peacekeepers to leave when their mandate expires march thirty first knowing of britain's channel four news filed this report on the reaction at the disputed cried so bored out plastic sheeting mark the line of hundreds of new anti tank defense bunkers dug by the creation army in the past ten days says one of several crude nationalized of new earthworks in violation of the united nations cease fire nearby these reinforced concrete bunkers with the monkees and ammunition await installation in new orleans too

on a desolate lines may just by the south korean army five years to a hilltop on the case and were awarded not to disclose emplacements are being reinforced for the moment when both sides demand the return of their heavy weapons party and the un vulcan at within an hour's drive the three a united nations and between both sides have created a fragile he's the ten month ceasefire had begun to build some mutual trust nothing that diluted the deep seated said cry i think for each other this is a typical united nations observation posts one of three hundred and fifty in no man's land here un forces monitor the separation the ceasefire between serb forces here until that deal that democrats who once occupied this deserted they actually destroyed get behind it the cards are now on the two kilometers away right over there and it's feared

conflict will be reigniting instantly when the croats and the serbs rush to fill the vacuum left well we always plan was fierce and to tell it one of the submission as mud well they in position which the warring factions wants to seize a sense in that mission forces leave as they do as we do so then the two sides come together and a clash because we're caught in the cross how dangerous could that one small clash be well like a spot stopping a lot of it could well below ought to be and soon for the un time is desperately short of running out channel four news new with special un envoy yes she a catchy and un was the modern the former yugoslavia general the realm this mediation mission across the confrontation lines and destroyed villages into the heart of serb held crying

in bosnia i catch you already have the permanent headache of struggling to mediate an end to war now in the cost of the service a mountain stronghold of comedic barely reported account she has a more pressing diplomatic challenge trying to prevent and pre empt a renewed said cry that was much worse than the balkans president market of crying out so cut off a low level contacts by the way because of the treatment decision to end the un mandate and immediately the search seized coming and the cry in a nineteen ninety one because they believe it to be their land by right also because it is the strategic rail and road of controlling zagreb communications with some pre show all those connections about cops the senate want the un to

stay because that will confirm the de facto so presence on land croatia is determined to get back what kind of minutely strength you have to sell just enough to oppose closure of what a few days the just enough in just enough is there is not overwhelming just enough just enough of that or do you have an alliance now the bosnian serbs off lots of course it's quite naturally of the same people the same paradox of the bosnian serb general mladic will send you for sitting outside and say we will see an extension of the war in bosnia and you have that commitment to your right so you know i would've thought more and more have this rolling on the un's main supply camp in zagreb after three years the un's massive infrastructure and gray shot support forty four thousand troops and civilian staff in croatia bosnia and the whole former yugoslavia it now generates eight percent of gracious

war damaged economy up for the croatian government the cash is less important than the un's basic inability to achieve the aims of its mandate again the major stories of this tuesday the senate neared a very close vote on the balanced budget amendment and that then secretary kerry recommended the closing of fifty seven military bases in this country cannot run an agenda that's the newshour tonight we'll see you again tomorrow night i'm robert mcteer funding for the macneil lehrer newshour has been provided by the archer daniels midland company adm ingredients and thousands of them so it's no wonder at a supermarket to the world and by new york life yet another example of the wise investment philosophy new york life has been following for the last one hundred and fifty years and by the corporation for public broadcasting and

by the annual financial support from viewers like you resisting this it's been