ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 4, 1996 TAG: 9601040075
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
The House failed Wednesday to override President Clinton's veto of a bill authorizing $265 billion for defense programs this fiscal year.
Clinton vetoed the bill Dec. 28, saying it would waste money on an unneeded missile defense system, ban abortions at overseas military hospitals and expel service members found to have the AIDS virus.
House Republicans, opening the second session of the 104th Congress in a combative mood, also were trying to override other Clinton vetoes of spending bills. They failed to defeat his rejection of a $27.3 billion measure that would finance the departments of Commerce, Justice and State.
Reps. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke; Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon; and L.F. Payne, D-Nelson County, all voted in favor of overriding that veto.
The president rejected that bill because it contained language to replace his cops-on-the-streets program with anti-crime block grants to states, cut funds for U.N. peacekeeping by 57 percent and reduced by one-third funding for the Legal Services Corp., which provides legal aid to the poor.
The 240-156 vote in favor of overriding the defense veto fell 24 votes short of the two-thirds needed. Had the House succeeded in overriding, there was little chance the Senate would go along. The Senate passed the original bill 51-43.
Goodlatte and Payne voted in favor of overriding the defense bill veto. Boucher supported the veto.
Rep. Floyd Spence, R-S.C., chairman of the National Security Committee, argued that Clinton's veto of a bill that contains pay and benefit increases for American troops ``represents a slap in the face of our military personnel and their families.''
Republicans also accused Clinton of risking national security in opposing their plan to set up a multisite anti-missile system by 2003. ``The president does not want to have a defense against incoming ballistic missiles,'' said Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif. ``We want to defend America. The president doesn't.''
But Rep. Ronald Dellums of California, ranking Democrat on the National Security Committee, said the bill would mean the unilateral abrogation of the 1972 ABM Treaty signed with the Soviet Union and ``wastes tens of billions of dollars at a time when we are hand-wringing about a balanced budget.''
The bill funds programs at a level $7 billion above what the administration requested. It includes a 2.4 percent pay raise for military personnel - Clinton sought to compensate for that by issuing an executive order raising military pay by 2 percent.
Clinton has allowed a defense appropriations bill for 1996 to become law, but his veto of the authorization bill holds up some policy changes, including production of a third Seawolf nuclear attack submarine and additional money for B-2 bombers.
In issuing the veto, Clinton did not object to the extra $493 million Congress wants to spend on the radar-evading bomber.
LENGTH: Medium: 60 linesby CNB