House OKs Defense spending bill as White House weighs in

The House Tuesday passed a $417 billion Defense appropriations bill on a 403-17 vote, including a $25 billion contingency fund for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Democrats complained the measure undercounted the funding needs for ongoing military operations.

"If this bill 'fessed up to the full year costs of funding this war, we would be appropriating at least $50 billion more than we are appropriating today," said Appropriations ranking member David Obey, D-Wis.

The Senate, meanwhile, is unlikely tomove to the Defense appropriations bill until after the July Fourth break, Senate leadership sources said Tuesday night.

The White House Tuesday said the House Defense appropriations bill could push total discretionary spending above President Bush's requested $819 billion limit, but said it nevertheless supports passage of the legislation and wants to work with the House on changes.

In a Statement of Administration Policy, the White House issued a number of concerns but included no veto threats.

The SAP said the $25 billion added to help finance operations in Iraq and Afghanistan should be treated as contingent emergency funds and not added to the discretionary top line.

The SAP noted that the White House has not fully assessed FY05 war fighting needs and is committed to sending up a supplemental request when it has a better idea of its requirements. In addition, the White House wants more flexibility in how the funds are spent.

Combined with "unnecessary" funds for "the U.S. mission in Iraq and for Sudan," keeping the $25 billion as written would cause the administration to score the bill so that discretionary spending would exceed $819 billion, according to the SAP.

The administration also seeks $4 billion in general transfer authority instead of the $3 billion provided. It opposes the $3.4 billion shift of funds out of Operations and Maintenance Military Personnel accounts and into "investment programs of lesser value."

The SAP also objected to increases for unrequested procurement and research, development, test and evaluation programs combined with reductions to the programs "of an indiscriminate nature."

The administration is "concerned" with advance procurement funding for an additional DDG-51 destroyer. It opposes, though, $458 million in reductions to missile defense programs, including $199 million in cuts in system engineering functions.

The SAP urged restoration of $263 million in funding for the space-based radar; $100 million for Transformational Satellite Communications; $110 million for Navy satellite communications; and $53 million for counterspace systems.