In the Nation

WASHINGTON - A balanced-budget amendment heading for a House vote this week could impose serious risks on the economy and force cuts to essential programs such as Medicare and Social Security, the White House said Tuesday.

It said it strongly opposed the amendment and said members of Congress should "find bipartisan common ground to restore us to a sustainable fiscal path."

]The debt-ceiling agreement that set up the bipartisan supercommittee commissioned with reducing the debt also required that Congress vote on a balanced-budget amendment. The version being taken up by the House would require that Congress not spend more than it receives in revenues unless three-fifths of both the House and Senate vote to do so. Proposed amendments to the Constitution must be approved by two-thirds majorities in both chambers and be ratified by three-fourths of state legislatures. - AP

WASHINGTON - In a victory for the makers of frozen pizzas, tomato paste, and french fries, Congress has blocked rules proposed by the Agriculture Department that would have overhauled the nation's school lunch program.

The proposed changes - the first in 15 years to the $11 billion program - were meant to reduce childhood obesity by adding more fruits and green vegetables to lunch menus, Agriculture Department officials said. They also would have halved the amount of sodium in school meals during the next 10 years.

But lawmakers drafting a House and Senate compromise for the agriculture spending bill late Monday blocked the department from using money to carry out any of the proposed rules. Food companies including ConAgra, Coca-Cola and Del Monte Foods argued that the rules would raise meal costs and require food that many children would throw away. - N.Y. Times
News Service

MONTPELIER, Vt. - In the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene's flooding, Vermont became what one lawmaker called a "lawless state" in restoring its rivers, with crews digging gravel from stream beds and piling boulders on river banks to strengthen them.

Environmentalists and some state officials told Vermont lawmakers Tuesday that the result was serious environmental damage, especially to fish habitats.

State regulations were relaxed on an emergency basis after the Aug. 28 storm. In some instances, the result was shoddy river restoration work, David Mears, head of the state Department of Environmental Conservation, and others said. - AP

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D., Ariz.), recovering from being shot in the head Jan. 8, told her constituents in a minute-long recorded message that she was eager to get back to work and missed her home.

Gay-rights pioneer Frank Kameny, who died last month at 86, was honored with a Capitol Hill memorial service in the same room where the House Un-American Activities Committee once targeted gays.