THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, December 16, 1995 TAG: 9512160289
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
A $265 billion defense bill aimed at increasing weapons spending while restricting presidential power to deploy troops won alopsided House passage Friday. The bill would ban abortions at military hospitals overseas and expel service members with AIDS.
The compromise measure, which House and Senate negotiators agreed upon this week, passed the House 267-149, and the Senate began debating it. A vote was not expected until next week and President Clinton has threatened to veto the bill, which adds $7 billion to his request for the current fiscal year.
Although the bill is similar to a defense appropriations bill that already is law, it includes policy provisions not in the spending measure.
Among other things, it requires the president to certify a national security need before placing U.S. troops under United Nations command. It also specifies deployment of a national missile defense system by 2003, a move the administration says may abrogate the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia.
On social issues, the bill would prohibit abortions at overseas military hospitals and require the automatic discharge of service members who test positive for AIDS.
National Security Advisor Anthony Lake told Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, that Clinton plans to veto the bill.
If a veto occurs and Congress fails to find some other solution, a 2.4 percent military pay raise and a 5.2 percent housing allowance increase for married service members, both due to take effect Jan. 1, would be placed on hold.
Rep. Randy ``Duke'' Cunningham, R-Calif., said, ``We need to add the dollars it takes to protect our kids'' in the military. But Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., said the bill ``wastes too much money on hardware we don't need.''
If the bill wins Senate passage, little time would remain to settle differences between the president and Congress, which is scheduled to recess for the year at the end of next week.
Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., ranking Democrat on the armed services panel, criticized the bill for spending more on missile defense than either the House or Senate originally approved. Nunn also criticized buy-American provisions that would ``result in enormous cost increases for naval vessels.''
KEYWORDS: DEFENSE BILL BUDGET by CNB