
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 20, 1990                   TAG: 9004200449
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

MILITARY MONEY SPLITS DEMOCRATS ON BUDGET PANEL

The House Budget Committee Thursday approved a $1.2 trillion fiscal 1991 spending plan, drawing the battle lines for a floor fight over military spending that threatens to undo a shaky Democratic consensus on budget priorities.

The committee voted 21-14 along straight party lines to pass the budget after liberal Democrats forced their leaders to lower the new Pentagon spending authority to $283 billion from $285.9 billion in the plan that Budget Committee Chairman Leon Panetta, D-Calif., presented.

At a news conference Wednesday, House Speaker Thomas Foley, D-Wash., Majority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., and other leaders publicly endorsed the higher military spending figure. But they then agreed to lower it after budget committee liberals threatened to scuttle the proposed plan. Now the lower figure could unite enough conservative and moderate Democrats with Republicans to jeopardize the budget when the full House considers it, perhaps as early as next week.

"It gives a lot of us conservatives real heartburn," said Rep. Jerry Huckaby, D-La. "There isn't a consensus among us whether we can support it."

House leadership aides expressed confidence the budget will win House approval without significant changes and said the full House will be allowed to vote on amendments that would both raise and lower the defense spending figure.

After the disarray over budget issues that marked the early years of Ronald Reagan's presidency, conservative and liberal House Democrats recently found common ground, agreeing that defense spending was too high and deficit-reduction was more important than new social programs.

But talk of a "peace dividend" has shaken that consensus as liberals have pressed for sharp, immediate cuts in defense spending. Gephardt, who Wednesday said the earlier, higher spending number reflected "a true consensus" among Democrats, conceded Thursday "there is not total, absolute consensus."

Liberal Democrats pressed for the lower military spending authority in exchange for a smaller reduction in direct spending in the next fiscal year, which remained at $295.4 billion, $11.5 billion less than needed to match inflation and $7.9 less than the administration wanted. The new spending authority figure is $32.8 billion less than needed to keep pace with inflation and $23.8 billion less than President Bush wants.

"We can't do all the cuts we want this year, so let's be damn well sure to make the cuts in future years," said Rep. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y.

The budget committee didn't make any changes to the proposed spending plan during its day-long drafting session, rejecting a series of attempts to shift money from military accounts to such social programs as education, transportation, environmental and health projects. Lawmakers are likely to offer many of the same amendments on the House floor.

In addition, the committee rejected the Bush administration's budget plan by a vote of 22-to-13, with Rep. Bill Schuette, R-Mich., joining the panel's 21 Democrats in opposing the plan. Schuette is running for his party's nomination for the Senate.

by CNB