Senate OKs Scaled-Back Service Corps : Jobs: Measure provides $600 million less than approved by the House. Both versions of legislation would fund participation by at least 100,000 people.

WASHINGTON — The Senate approved a scaled-back version of President Clinton’s national service program Tuesday, agreeing to provide $1.5 billion over three years for the domestic Peace Corps-style operation--$600 million less than was approved by the House last week.

The competing pieces of legislation now must be reconciled by a House-Senate conference committee and voted upon again by both chambers.

Although neither version of the legislation comes close to providing the $7.4 billion initially sought for the program by the President, the Administration maintained that Clinton’s vision had not been compromised.

“What emerged today was absolutely, essentially, fundamentally what the President introduced in May,” said Eli Segal, head of the White House national service office. He added that differences between the House and Senate versions are “quite small” and that the Administration would be pleased even if the more modest Senate version is adopted.

Both versions of the legislation would enable at least 100,000 people to participate in the program over three years, proponents said. Patterned after the John F. Kennedy Administration’s international Peace Corps program, it is designed to put people to work improving communities in exchange for small salaries and annual bonuses to help pay college or job training costs.

Passage of the initiative comes at a key time for the White House, which has been struggling to reverse the perception that the President has had difficulty winning legislative victories, even though his party controls both houses of Congress.

Clinton hailed the vote, saying in a written statement: “I’ve always said national service is the American way to change America. . . . I commend the United States Congress for taking action that will prove that true.”

“National and community service is one of the best investments that we can make for the generations to come,” said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), who managed the bill on the Senate floor. “It is what the effort to ‘reinvent America’ is all about, because it is the most significant step we have taken so far to return to our roots--to revitalize the sense of community that has always been the hallmark of America at its best.”

Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.), who voted against the measure, said that Republican-inspired debate and delaying tactics succeeded in lowering the program’s price tag. “I think it is still too much but that is certainly an improvement,” Dole said.

Republican opponents of the bill argued that it is too expensive considering the limited number of people who would benefit. Furthermore, they said, Americans do not need to be bribed with large educational stipends to spark their spirit of volunteerism. But Republicans abandoned their effort to prevent the bill’s passage because too many GOP senators decided to support the program, which has been popular among Americans.

Seven Republican senators joined Democrats to pass the bill, 58 to 41. Funding for the program must be passed separately.

More than just improving the lives of participants, the program is designed to help accomplish Clinton’s broader domestic agenda of reinvigorating American communities through joint efforts between government agencies and grass-roots organizations.

Local groups will be asked to devise creative ways to solve some of the problems in their communities and then given money to hire the manpower they need to accomplish the tasks, Segal said. National service teams will be involved in many different kinds of activities, such as literacy workshops, urban rehabilitation projects, crime prevention and immunization drives.

Some of the money will be parceled out to states based on population and the remainder will be doled out competitively. The ratio between the two methods of disbursement will be determined by the conference committee.

The first teams of national service participants are expected to begin work next summer, Segal said.