News in Brief

House Republican leaders last week agreed to drop some of their more drastic plans for overhauling the governance of the District of Columbia and its public schools.

The GOP leaders still plan to cut the city's budget. But they will leave the decisions on what to cut to the control board set up by Congress to oversee the troubled city's financial affairs. The $4.87 billion spending limit the bill would set is $260 million less than the control board recommended and at least $80 million less than the city spent in 1995.

Moreover, House Republican leaders said they will drop a long list of proposals that local officials had denounced as infringing on the city's home rule. The agreement came during a meeting between House GOP leaders and Andrew F. Brimmer, the chairman...