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Congress approves 400b 2004 { May 23 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/05/23/national0312EDT0447.DTLhttp://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/05/23/national0312EDT0447.DTL
House and Senate approve $400 billion in defense spending for 2004
JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer
Friday, May 23, 2003
©2003 Associated Press
(05-23) 00:12 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) --
The House and the Senate approved $400.5 billion spending plans aimed at assuring the military has the technology, weaponry and personnel to fight the wars and terrorist threats of the 21st century.
The two bills, passed within hours of each other Thursday, each contain more than $70 billion to buy weapons and $60 billion for research and development programs as well as $9.1 billion for a national missile defense system.
They also give the president more than he wants for homeland defense. The House bill approves $567 million, $61 million more than the administration asked, for chemical-biological defense equipment and material.
The measures, which authorize Pentagon spending for the 2004 fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, provide an average 4.1 percent pay raise for military personnel. The two chambers must now negotiate a common bill. Bills to actually appropriate money will have to be passed later this year.
"America's military team has performed brilliantly for us. Now it is time for us to perform for them," House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., said at the opening of the House debate.
With the country fresh from wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and under heightened alert for terrorist attacks, there was little opposition to the 4.7 percent spending increase over defense spending approved last year.
The Senate vote was 98-1 with Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., the only dissenter; the House vote was 361-68.
But there was strong opposition, mainly from Democrats, on such issues as Pentagon plans to start research into "low-yield" nuclear weapons for such purposes as destroying deeply buried bunkers and to make it easier for military bases to circumvent the Endangered Species Act and other environmental laws.
House Democrats also opposed a provision giving Pentagon managers more flexibility to hire, transfer and promote civilian employees and criticized GOP leaders for not allowing them to offer a "bill of rights" amendment guaranteeing that civilians would not face favoritism or lose collective bargaining rights.
Republicans argued that cutting out bureaucratic rules would allow the Pentagon to fill more jobs now done by uniformed personnel with civilians.
The House and Senate both narrowly defeated proposals to restore the right of servicewomen and dependents to obtain privately paid abortions at military hospitals overseas. Abortions at military hospitals were banned late in the Reagan administration, a decision reversed for several years in the Clinton administration. Since 1996 Congress has allowed military facilities to be used for abortions only in cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is in danger.
The Senate, in a nonbinding vote, urged that government contracts for the rebuilding of Iraq be open to full competition. Senators asked that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers quickly replace a noncompetitive award to a subsidiary of Halliburton, the company formerly run by Vice President Dick Cheney.
The House voted 226-199 to defeat an amendment by Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., that would have taken $21 million from research on a new "bunker-busting" tactical nuclear weapon and other new low-yield nuclear weapons, and used the money to study conventional weapons capable of penetrating deeply buried targets.
"Until we have exhausted all conventional means to defeat hardened targets," she said, "it would be irresponsible for Congress to jump the gun and promote new uses for nuclear weapons."
Senate Democrats on Wednesday failed to retain a 1993 ban on the research and development of low-yield nuclear weapons. The administration says the ban will hinder the ability of U.S. scientists and engineers "to explore technical options to deter national security threats."
Instead, the Senate accepted language that requires congressional approval of programs to develop and produce such weapons.
The Senate bill has $181 million for developing chemical and biological weapon detection and protection technology; $88.4 million for 12 support teams to help first responders in the event of a chemical, biological or nuclear attack by terrorists; and $3.5 billion for 20 F/A-22 Raptor jets, which have been plagued by delays and cost overruns. That is two fewer jets than the administration had requested.
Both bills include $450 million to dismantle and eliminate weapons of mass destruction in the former Soviet Union, an amount House Democrats said was insufficient.
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On the Net:
Information on the bills, S. 1050 and H.R. 1588, can be found at thomas.loc.gov
©2003 Associated Press
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