Obama would veto bill for new deficit-reduction panel: White House

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama would veto a bill by the House of Representatives that would create a bipartisan panel to make recommendations on reducing the country's deficit and debt limit, the White House said on Tuesday. The White House said the bill "does nothing to solve the immediate, pressing obligations (that) the Congress has to open the government and pay its bills" and urged the House to vote on a Senate-passed bill that would reopen the government. The White House also said Obama would veto another House proposal dealing with "excepted" federal workers who are on the job during the shutdown. Under current law, those employees will not get paid until the government reopens. The House has proposed to pay them now, similar to how active military employees are being paid during the shutdown. The House has already passed a bill that would retroactively pay employees classified as "non-essential" who have been furloughed during the government shutdown. Obama said on Tuesday he supports that measure, which has not yet been passed by the Senate. (Reporting by Roberta Rampton, Jeff Mason; Editing by Sandra Maler and Jackie Frank)