House panel approves $9.2 billion for military construction

After a testy scrap over tax-and-spending priorities, the House military construction subcommittee approved by voice vote Wednesday nearly $9.2 billion in spending next fiscal year for military housing and other projects.

The unanimity of the final vote masked a vigorous Democratic effort to add $947 million to the bill for additional military construction-then paying for it with a 5 percent reduction in the amount of tax savings due millionaires in 2004 under President Bush's tax cut.

Charging that the military construction bill was "shrunken to the bone in order to give some fat cats a big tax cut," Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., offered an amendment as a statement, he said, of Congress' priorities. Obey said that, under his amendment, citizens grossing more than $1 million in taxable income next year would qualify for $83,546 in lower taxes. Under Bush's plan, they are due to get $88,326.

"This tax cut is excessive, especially when we begin to cut back on housing for our military families, Obey said.

The amendment was defeated, 9-6, on a party line vote. Subcommittee Chairman Joe Knollenberg, R-Mich., said his panel was the wrong venue to be changing tax law. And Rep. James Walsh, R-N.Y., accused Democrats of "politicizing" the appropriations process by attacking the majority Republicans' earlier approval of the Bush tax bill, which the president signed into law last month.

Knollenberg acknowledged that fiscal year 2004 cutbacks in military construction spending, compared to this year, fell short of the committee's own assessment of the needs. But, he said in opposing Obey's amendment, "this committee is not the proper place for it. ... It should be taken up in the Ways and Means Committee. ... I wish I had a magic wand to create the money we need to do what we should be doing."

The military construction bill, which was reported to the full committee, is roughly $1.3 billion below the current year's spending level and shaves $41 million from the president's fiscal 2004 request. It includes $4.8 billion for barracks, child care centers, hospital and medical facilities, the scrapping of chemical weapons, strengthening NATO's antiterrorism facilities and construction and maintenance of Reserve and National Guard centers.

It also contains $3.9 billion for new family housing and improvements, along with $2.7 billion for operations and maintenance of existing units. And it has $370 million for environmental cleanup and other projects on military bases.