CONGRESS OFFERS CLINTON A CHOICE.(MAIN)

Byline: JANET HOOK Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON Bowing to apparent public disgust with the longest government shutdown in history, Congress approved legislation Friday to send 280,000 furloughed federal employees back to work until Jan. 26.

The bill, which also restores funding for several of the federal government's most popular and visible programs, falls short of reopening the government because it only provides workers' pay, not operating funds for many federal activities.

But Congress also passed a second bill that would reopen the entire federal government until Jan. 26 paying both operating costs and workers' salaries but only if Clinton acceded to Republicans' longstanding demand that he submit a proposal for balancing the budget in seven years, using Congressional Budget Office …