THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 7, 1995 TAG: 9509070469
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LOS ANGELES TIMES
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
The Senate approved a $265.3 billion defense authorization bill Wednesday that would give President Clinton $7.5 billion more than he sought in Pentagon spending, in defiance of a presidential veto threat.
The bill included funding for a third Seawolf submarine. Such funding wasn't part of the House bill, so a House-Senate conference committee must resolve the issue.
Passage of the Senate bill came on a vote of 64-34 after lawmakers agreed to water down a controversial Republican-drafted provision that would have required the administration to deploy a national missile defense system by 2003.
The measure now goes to a joint House-Senate conference committee, where the administration is expected to mount a vigorous campaign to eliminate key provisions that officials had warned might prompt Clinton to veto the bill.
Defense Secretary William J. Perry has said he still is not sure whether he will recommend a veto of the bill, even after approval of the compromise. ``I still have problems (with it),'' he told reporters.
Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, warned that the lawmakers still face ``high hurdles'' in removing enough of the objectionable provisions to avoid a presidential veto.
Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., was even more pessimistic. ``This is a bill that is not anywhere near becoming law,'' he asserted. He said he was ``just amazed, really, by (the) stupidity of what we are doing . . . today.''
Besides the dispute with the administration, the conferees also must resolve sharp differences between the Senate version of the bill and a measure that the House passed almost three months ago.
The Senate measure, for example, follows Clinton's recommendations to kill the controversial B-2 bomber and to build a third Seawolf submarine. The House bill would keep the B-2 alive, but eliminate the Seawolf project.
The action on the national anti-missile defense system reflected a bipartisan compromise - worked out just before Congress left for its August recess - that diluted a stronger provision written into the original bill.
The initial proposal would have required the administration to deploy an anti-missile defense system by the year 2003 at several sites - apparently in violation of the 1972 anti-ballistic missile (ABM) treaty.
By contrast, the compromise approved Tuesday would only require that the Pentagon have such a system ready to field by that date, but leaves it up to the administration and Congress to decide whether to deploy it.
It also calls on the administration to begin formal negotiations with Russia to make any changes in the ABM treaty that it believes would be needed to deploy such a national anti-ballistic missile system.
Combined with the version passed by the House, the legislation constitutes the Republicans' most daunting challenge to Clinton's defense policies since they took power on Capitol Hill last January.
Republicans say Clinton has cut military spending too far, and has left the services unable to keep up with weapons-modernization and research-and-development.
Republicans have been arguing that the United States is unprotected against attacks by long-range ballistics - particularly from Third World countries such as North Korea - and wanted a system put in place by 2003.
But the administration contends that it will take at least a decade for Third World missiles to become a serious threat, and has mapped out a more gradual approach, to develop the technology more slowly. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
HOW THEY VOTED
A ``yes'' vote is a vote to approve the spending bill.
John W. Warner, R-Va.Yes
Charles S. Robb, D-Va.Yes
Jesse A. Helms, R-N.C.Yes
Lauch Faircloth, R-N.C.Yes
by CNB