THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 1, 1995 TAG: 9512010233
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORT
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines
President voices concern over excessive spending; bill also includes funds that will keep Newport News Shipbuilding in submarine business.
Despite spending concerns, the President approves the measure to assure funding for Bosnian troops; bill keeps Newport News in the sub business.
President Clinton decided Thursday to sign a defense spending bill that he has said is too costly. He changed his mind because the bill will provide the money to send troops and other support to Bosnia.
The massive spending bill also includes more than $1.5 billion for Navy submarines, including funds to continue work on the third and last ship in the Seawolf line of subs and $100 million that will help keep Newport News Shipbuilding in the submarine business.
``This legislation is vital to fund our national defense so that the United States remains the strongest force for peace in the world,'' Clinton said in a statement Thursday night.
``I made this decision because my administration has reached agreement with congressional leaders to provide funding, out of the funds contained in this bill, for the troop deployment and other efforts to secure peace in Bosnia.''
Clinton repeated his strong reservations about the bill, which he said contains ``excessive spending for projects that are not currently needed for defense.''
``I will forward to Congress rescission legislation that would eliminate funding for those projects, and I urge Congress to act on it,'' he said.
Clinton's announcement came hours after budget talks on Capitol Hill broke down, with Republicans saying they would not give the president what he wanted in return for his signature, namely, billions of dollars extra for domestic programs.
``The decision I am making tonight is consistent with our understanding that these discussions will continue with the goal of reaching a satisfactory conclusion as rapidly as possible,'' Clinton said.
One administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said talks with congressional Republicans might continue today on the remaining domestic spending bills.
Instead of giving Clinton the money he wants for domestic programs, GOP leaders said they would consider easing planned cuts in education, job training and other administration domestic initiatives only after the two sides strike a budget-balancing deal.
``You can't divorce the two,'' said House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga. ``It's all the budget.''
The GOP strategy further complicated an enormously tangled decision for the president, who was traveling in Northern Ireland. Clinton was worried that vetoing the Pentagon spending measure might jeopardize Republican support for his plan to send a 20,000-troop U.S. peacekeeping force to Bosnia.
The $243 billion defense bill contains $7 billion more than Clinton wants, mostly for weapons programs. The president had until midnight Thursday to veto the bill or sign it, or it would become law automatically.
The money going to Newport News will finance some of the firm's preliminary work on what will be the second ship in a new line of nuclear-powered subs to follow the Seawolfs. Actual construction is not expected to begin until 1999.
The first boat in the new sub class, like the Seawolfs, will be built at Electric Boat of Groton, Conn., the only other U.S. builder of subs. The bill provides $700 million to Electric Boat to continue work on the final Seawolf and another $700 million for the first ship in the new class.
The Seawolf line is being stopped after just three ships because Congress now sees the $2.5 billion ships as too expensive for the leaner defense budgets of the post-Cold War era. Subs in the new class will be smaller than the Seawolfs and are supposed to cost about $1.5 billion each.
As Clinton pondered his decision Thursday, bipartisan budget negotiators broke off talks until Monday, with each side accusing the other of not bargaining seriously. The negotiations, which began Tuesday, are aimed at finding a compromise plan for balancing the budget by 2002.
As they stalked out of their Capitol meeting room, Republicans said Clinton had not yet proposed a true balanced budget, and Democrats said the GOP was refusing to discuss the impact on the public of their plans to carve savings from Medicare, Medicaid and other social programs.
``It probably understates it to say this is off to a rocky start,'' said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., one of the bargainers.
A senior administration official agreed, accusing Republicans of deliberately ``blowing up'' the session. MEMO: This story was compiled from reports by The Associated Press and staff
writer Dale Eisman. by CNB