ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, December 16, 1995 TAG: 9512190016
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
A $265 billion defense bill aimed at increasing weapons spending while restricting presidential power to deploy troops won lopsided House passage Friday.
It also would ban abortions at military hospitals overseas and expel service members with AIDS.
The compromise measure, which House and Senate negotiators agreed upon this week, passed the House 267-149, and the Senate began debating it.
All of Virginia's representatives, except Rep. James Moran, D-Alexandria, voted for the bill.
A vote was not expected until next week and President Clinton has threatened to veto the bill, which adds $7 billion to his request for the current fiscal year.
Although the bill is similar to a defense appropriations bill that already is law, it includes provisions not in the spending measure.
Among other things, it requires the president to certify a national security need before placing U.S. troops under United Nations command. It also specifies deployment of a national missile defense system by 2003, a move the Clinton administration says may abrogate the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia.
On social issues, the bill would prohibit abortions at overseas military hospitals and require the automatic discharge of service members who test positive for the AIDS virus.
``This is unnecessary and discriminatory,'' Rep. Ronald Dellums, D-Calif., said of the AIDS provision. ``It would preclude the military from using personnel who areprofessional in their jobs.''
The abortion provision, he said, was incorporated into the bill without hearings on it.
Rep. Bob Dornan, R-Calif., said hearings weren't needed because ``every single military doctor in Europe and the Pacific does not want to crush a baby's skull in the mother's womb and abort them.''
LENGTH: Short : 46 linesby CNB