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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 27, 1991                   TAG: 9102270270
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Baltimore Sun
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

CONGRESS WORRIES WAR MAY BECOME DEFENSE-FUND ALIBI

As the Persian Gulf War speeds to an apparently inexorable conclusion, members of Congress are worrying that the United States will be stuck with the bill.

"We have this `check is in the mail' syndrome - especially with some of the countries that have the most ability to pay, the most at stake in keeping the oil flowing," complained Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

Moreover, many members also wonder if the Pentagon isn't padding its cost estimates, seeking to shuffle Desert Storm funds into a kind of all-purpose Pentagon slush account aimed at bolstering U.S. military stockpiles instead of replacing materiel actually used up or destroyed in the war.

"If truth is the first casualty of war, then certainly the second category is sane and rational military spending," said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa.

In testimony Tuesday before the Senate Appropriations Committee, White House budget director Richard Darman and Deputy Secretary of Defense Donald Atwood sought to assure lawmakers that $53 billion worth of allied commitments to the war effort would be honored, but Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney did not make an expected appearance.

The officials promised skeptical panel members, mostly Democrats, that the Bush administration would not use the war as an excuse to inflate the peacetime defense budget beyond the level of last year's sweeping deficit-reduction agreement.

Nevertheless, committee chairman Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., promised Congress would closely examine President Bush's $15 billion request for financing Operation Desert Storm to make sure the money actually is needed.

Bush wants $15 billion in federal funds and permission to use all $53.5 billion in pledged aid from allied nations - enough, the White House says, to finance the war through the end of March.

The request does not seek the replacement of major equipment such as aircraft or tanks, which administration officials have said may not have to be replaced because reductions were already planned. But it does seek funds for a range of items that have been heavily used in the gulf conflict - including $324 million for 500 Patriot missiles and $545 million to buy 400 Tomahawk cruise missiles.

Byrd complained that allied countries have delivered only $14.9 billion out of $53.5 billion in assistance they have promised, singling out the United Arab Emirates and Japan as countries that could easily afford to help.

by CNB