Panel brushes aside objections; extends defense supply law

The House Financial Services Domestic and International Monetary Policy, Trade and Technology Subcommittee approved the reauthorization Thursday of the Defense Production Act, a Korean War-era law aimed at assuring the swift delivery of supplies and services to troops.

The Subcommittee approved the measure (H.R. 1280) by voice vote after defeating two amendments by Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif.

The markup began Wednesday, but was recessed after Waters questioned whether top Bush administration officials had conflicts of interest in calling on U.S. companies, where they had previously been employed, in the bidding process for the $1.5 billion in contracts for rebuilding post-war Iraq.

The authorization for the DPA does not expire until the end of this fiscal year. But lawmakers are moving to reauthorize the law because they do not want to risk a repeat of the 1991 Gulf War, when the authorization expired in the middle of the conflict.

Waters' first amendment, which would have barred the federal government from producing biological or chemical agents for sale to other countries or for use by the American military, was defeated 9-5. She offered a subsequent, similar amendment that was defeated by voice vote.