DEAL REACHED ON CENSUS; OTHER DELAYS TO KEEP LAWMAKERS WORKING.

Byline: Associated Press

Top Republican lawmakers claimed a breakthrough deal Sunday with the Clinton administration over the 2000 census. But Democrats were initially unhappy, and the year's first weekend session found Congress still wrestling over abortion and overdue spending bills.

The premier issue on lawmakers' plates was a decisive House vote on President Clinton's trade initiative, and that showdown kept slipping as the administration and its GOP supporters searched for support.

Because of those delays and problems with the three remaining spending bills for the month-old fiscal 1998, Congress' goal of adjourning for the year Sunday night proved elusive. As a result, both the House and the Senate by voice vote passed a bill keeping agencies with unfinished budgets functioning for another day, sending it to the White House for Clinton's signature.

One major hurdle seemed to be toppled by the agreement over the upcoming census, an issue with profound effects on both parties' chances of controlling the House in the next decade. Republicans have been trying to block Census Bureau plans to use statistical sampling in 2000, and under the agreement that conflict will be fought anew in 1999.

But that wasn't good enough for House Democrats, who complained about having to refight the battle and a provision under which Congress would finance a Republican court challenge against sampling.

The administration says sampling, which uses computers to estimate populations, will help prevent anticipated undercounts of minorities. Republicans, who oppose its use, have said the technique could be abused to produce minority-dominated districts, which tend to vote Democratic.

The agreement would let a court challenge to the constitutionality of sampling reach the Supreme Court under accelerated procedures. Meanwhile, the Census Bureau could make preliminary preparations next year involving both sampling and traditional procedures - watched closely by an oversight board with equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans.

The census dispute had been delaying a $30 billion measure financing the departments of State, Commerce and Justice for fiscal 1998. It was unclear how quickly Congress would be able to send the bill to Clinton for his signature.

The Senate lumped all three remaining spending bills into a single $44 billion measure and approved it by voice vote. But that bill was going nowhere in the House until the disputes over the census and abortion were resolved.