GOP SPLIT OVER BUDGET RESOLUTION\House Republicans to reject Senate plan.

Byline: Angie Cannon and R.A. Zaldivar Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire

The Senate voted Tuesday to end the government's increasingly disruptive 18-day shutdown but defiant House Republican leaders vowed to block the bill until President Clinton signs off on a balanced-budget plan.

"If the president wants to end his shutdown," said House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, "he can get serious and agree to a balanced budget."

The Senate action - which would allow federal operations to resume through Jan. 12 while budget talks continue - came amid warnings that if the stalemate continues, the impact will spread. Officials said:

Some 600,000 elderly in 12 states could lose their Meals on Wheels by the end of the week.

The U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department will not be able to renew 18,000 housing vouchers this month for low and moderate-income families, which could lead to evictions.

And some 11 states are close to exhausting their federal funds for administering the unemployment insurance program and are planning to close their offices.

Clinton and congressional leaders met at the White House on Tuesday evening for the fourth time in five days to discuss their differing ideas for balancing the budget by 2002. After about three hours of talks and dinner in the White House family quarters, Clinton and the congressional leaders agreed to meet again this afternoon. They said they were making "constructive progress."

Earlier in the day, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., tried to persuade House Republicans to agree to a 10-day stopgap spending bill, but he was rebuffed.

Following a brief session with House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., and Armey, Dole decided to move the bill through the Senate, which passed it on a voice vote.

After the Senate vote, Gingrich spokesman Tony Blankley said the Senate bill has no chance in the House. "There is no way the Republican leadership would bring this up for a vote," he said, describing it as a tactical maneuver by the Senate to avoid blame for the shutdown.

The decision by Dole to press ahead despite House opposition highlights the growing split between House and Senate Republicans over the wisdom of using the government shutdown to squeeze Clinton in the budget talks.

The bill would allow the 280,000 furloughed federal employees to return to their jobs. It would pay them and the 480,000 federal employees who are working without pay because they are considered "emergency" workers.

Joyce Rush, 51, a psychiatric nursing assistant at a Los Angeles veterans hospital, was home Tuesday recovering from an emergency heart operation and trying to cope with the threatened shutoff of her electricity and water.

Because of the budget stalemate, Rush is not getting her sick pay. Her bank account is overdrawn, and bills are piling up. "I really hate it, because I'm suffering right now," said Rush, who makes about $23,000 a year. "Everything is on zero."

A check from a federal employees relief fund arrived Tuesday, just in time to forestall the shutoff of Rush's utilities. But Rush has no idea how she will pay her mortgage or her car note this month.

"I don't know which way I'm going," she said. "Like I tell my family, you can be up one day and homeless the next."

Even the charity that helps strapped federal employees such as Rush is running out of money. The Federal Employee Education and Assistance Fund (FEEA) has distributed tens of thousands of applications for financial help and is processing about 500 requests. Federal employees can apply for one $500 no-interest loan for basic expenses.

"At the rate we are going, our money will be lucky to last for one week," said Steve Bauer, FEEA executive director. "We are telling people we are a charity, and they can donate to us."

Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala warned Tuesday that feeding programs for the poor and for elderly shut-ins - including the popular Meals on Wheels - will be in jeopardy soon.

She said about 600,000 elderly participants in feeding programs - both homebound invalids and those who eat at feeding centers - are endangered by the shutdown of services.