THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 23, 1995 TAG: 9502230337
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LOS ANGELES TIMES
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
The House approved an emergency bill Wednesday providing $3.2 billion to cover the cost of U.S. peacekeeping operations around the world, and decided to finance it by cutting domestic programs ranging from school construction to coal technology subsidies.
About 35 ``pro-defense'' Democrats joined Republicans in voting 260-167 to defeat a Democrat-sponsored substitute that would have held the increase in defense spending to $2.6 billion and would have paid for it by cutting other Pentagon programs.
Republicans pushed the measure through quickly after members of the joint chiefs of staff warned that unless Congress provided the money by the end of March, the services would have to slash training, maintenance and procurement - seriously crimping military readiness.
The Clinton administration had asked for only $2.6 billion, to be offset by $703 million in spending cuts still to be decided. Republicans added another $600 million in spending to help finance pay increases and other expenses that they contend are not adequately funded.
The vote marked the second time in a week the House GOP majority has overridden the administration on military issues. Republicans contend that Clinton's heavy involvement in peacekeeping ventures has seriously hurt readiness. The Pentagon disagrees.
Last Thursday, the House passed broad legislation designed to restrict the president's power to send U.S. forces on U.N. peacekeeping missions, and to force the administration to deduct the cost of such ventures from Washington's financial contribution to the U.N. peacekeeping budget.
Pentagon estimates show that U.S. participation in peacekeeping operations - Somalia, Rwanda, Bosnia, Kuwait, South Korea, Cuba and Haiti - will have cost the Pentagon about $2.6 billion by the time that fiscal 1995 ends Sept. 30.
Because all of it was unexpected and not previously budgeted, the services paid for it by siphoning money from their operations and maintenance accounts. MEMO: HIGHLIGHTS
SPENDING INCREASES: $2.5 billion for U.S. military operations in
Haiti, Somalia, Bosnia, Korea and elsewhere; $670 million for a pay
raise for personnel and for training.
SPENDING CUTS: $1.5 billion from defense programs, $1.4 billion from
domestic programs, and $360 million in payments the United States
expects from Persian Gulf nations for American troops sent to the gulf
last fall.
Cuts include $502 million from a program that helps defense
contractors switch to civilian production; $400 million for wind tunnels
NASA has proposed; $190 million in aid to Russia, including money to
construct housing for Russian troops removed from the Baltic states;
$150 million to clean toxic waste at military bases; $100 million to
build schools; $62 million to help development in Africa.
HOW THEY VOTED
A ``yes'' vote is a vote to approve the legislation.
Herbert H. Bateman, R-Va.Yes
Owen B. Pickett, D-Va.Yes
Robert C. Scott, D-Va.Yes
Norman Sisisky, D-Va.Yes
Eva Clayton, D-N.C. No
Walter Jones Jr., R-N.C. Yes
KEYWORDS: MILITARY BUDGET by CNB