THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 30, 1994 TAG: 9409300496
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORT
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
Although Congress cut $100 million from the construction budget for a new aircraft carrier, a Hampton Roads congressman said he considers the project fully funded with the $2.3 billion approved Thursday.
The amount trimmed was part of the propulsion system for the $4.5 billion nuclear-powered carrier. Still, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Herb Bateman, a Peninsula Republican, said the vote assures construction of the ship.
In a statement Thursday, Newport News Shipbuilding, which would build the carrier, agreed, expressing gratitude to lawmakers, unions and suppliers across the country who lobbied for approval of the money. The project was seen as vital to the health of the shipyard, Virginia's largest private employer.
The carrier is part of a $244 billion defense bill that gently trims President Clinton's spending plans while financing the new carrier and reviving a retired spy plane.
Reflecting a consensus that the Cold War's end and the tight overall budget would make big spending increases difficult to justify, the House debated the bill for just 12 minutes before approving the measure, 327 to 86. The Senate discussed the bill for an hour before sending it by voice vote to Clinton.
``It is a good agreement, which will provide for the safety and support of our men and women in uniform,'' said Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, who chairs the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that wrote the measure.
In the end, lawmakers sent Clinton a spending plan for fiscal 1995 that falls $822 million short of what he requested last winter, while providing most of his priorities. The legislation provides $3.5 billion more than this year's Pentagon budget, not enough to stay even with inflation.
The budget also supplies $100 million to keep the SR-71 Blackbird spy aircraft aloft.
The measure was the 12th of the 13 annual appropriations bills lawmakers have dispatched to the White House. Earlier Thursday, the Senate, voting 89 to 11, gave final approval to a $38.3 billion transportation bill. The 13th measure, which controls the District of Columbia's municipal budget, has become the target of amendments ranging from Haiti to the baseball strike. MEMO: DETAILS OF DEFENSE-SPENDING BILL
$728 million for the B-2 Stealth bomber program.
$125 million to keep builders of the B-2 from going out of business,
even though planes budgeted already have been acquired.
$467 million for continued research and development - but not
construction - on the V-22 Osprey, a tilt-rotor plane that the Bush
administration tried in vain to kill.
$421 million for development of a new attack submarine.
A 2.6 percent pay raise for military personnel.
A limit of 1.5 million active-duty troops.
$3.3 billion to help defense contractors convert to production of
peacetime products.
$400 million for Soviet states to dismantle their nuclear arsenal.
KEYWORDS: MILITARY BUDGET by CNB