Military Spending bill clears Senate hurdle

Friday, May 28, 1999 | 11:22 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The Senate Thursday night passed a $289 billion military authorization bill that tightens security at the nation's weapons laboratories. But the House, faced with a nearly identical bill, collapsed into chaos and abruptly recessed for the holiday weekend.

Faced with furious partisan bickering, Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois, realizing that the Republican majority did not have the necessary 218 votes to bring the bill to the floor, shut down the House and sent its members home.

House Republican leaders blamed Democrats for blocking the bill. The Democrats, in turn, said conservative Republicans had bolted from their leaders over a provision barring funds for ground troops in combat or peacekeeping in Kosovo.

That measure was deleted overnight by the Republicans at the insistence of the White House, which threatened late Wednesday to veto the entire military spending bill over the provision. That move, in turn, infuriated conservative Republicans who wanted to debate the issue of ground troops on the House floor.

Having lost part of their right wing, the Republicans needed votes from the Democrats to bring up the bill. But Democratic blocs also walked away after the Republicans refused to consider amendments to support steps by the Clinton administration to step up security at the weapons laboratories, cut the number of American forces in Europe and set aside contracts for minority groups.

"It used to be that partisanship stopped at the water's edge," sighed Rep. Tillie Fowler, R-Fla., on the House Armed Services Committee. But partisanship compounded by ideological divisions among the Republicans approached a high water mark this week.

The bill was halted "due to Democrat opposition," said Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif. Dreier, chairman of the House Rules Committee, said the opposition surfaced Thursday "despite the assurances provided last night by the Democrat leadership and the president's staff" that most Democrats would support the bill.

A White House spokesman, Jake Siewert, called Dreier's explanation "an excuse for ineptitude." The minority leader, Richard Gephardt of Missouri, said, "Every time the Republican leadership finds itself unable to beat back the extreme right wing within their own party, they blame the Democrats."

The military authorization bill was the fourth major spending bill Hastert had scheduled over the past three days that the House Republicans were unable to move, due in large part to dissent between their right wing and their moderates.

In the Senate, the military measure faced a far smoother path, winning passage by a 92-3 vote Thursday night. It would authorize $288.8 billion in military spending for next year, $8.3 billion more than the White House and the Pentagon sought. Nevada Democratic Sens. Harry Reid and Richard Bryan voted in favor of the measure.

The measure includes $89 billion for new weapons, including $3.7 billion for various missile defense programs. It also includes a 4.8 percent raise for military personnel and blocks the military from closing bases over the next two years.

Reacting to reports of Chinese espionage aimed at the nation's nuclear weapons laboratories, the Senate added provisions intended to plug any leaks from the labs.

The Senate approved, by a voice vote, measures inspired by this week's House report on China's acquisition of American military technology. They are intended to "change the mindset at the Department of Energy," which oversees the weapons labs said Sen. Frank H. Murkowski, R-Alaska.

They would tighten export controls on high-tech items, require the Central Intelligence Agency to review applications for overseas launches of American satellites, monitor Chinese rocket launches and expand American launch capabilities. As the Senate adopted tighter safeguards at nuclear labs, a proposal tacked on to reorganize the Energy Department erupted into a bipartisan dispute that delayed further action until after the Memorial Day recess.

The proposal was offered as an amendment to the defense authorization bill.

Sens. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., and Murkowski, R-Alaska, proposed creating a new assistant secretary for defense programs in the Energy Department who would report directly to the president and would be authorized to bypass the energy secretary in dealing directly with Congress.

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson opposed the proposal as too extensive. In a letter to Senate leaders, he said, "this proposal would effectively cancel by six-month effort to strengthen security."

Senate Majority leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said he was "very disappointed" that the measures to tighten security and improve export controls on sensitive military technology failed to pass. He vowed to bring it back in June.

"We're going to have to take a look at reorganizing the way the Department of Energy as a whole operates," Lott said.

"We need to look at some way to reimpose the export administration regime. There's got to be some balance between commercial desire, trade and national security."

Democrats with Senate Minority Whip Reid leading the charge, warned against acting too quickly after a bipartisan congressional report revealed spying by the Chinese for more than 20 years.

The Democrats said the measure was opposed by the Department of Energy and could prompt a White House veto of the entire spending bill. President Clinton said on Thursday that he opposed such a reorganization.

"This is not the appropriate way to legislate," Reid said.

Sun reporterMary Manning contributed to this report.