Bush signs $29 billion supplemental spending bill

Putting to an end-to some extent-one of the oddest appropriations battles in memory, President Bush Friday signed a $28.9 billion fiscal 2002 supplemental bill that would provide homeland security and defense funds, as well as deliver more aid to New York City.

But Bush, who announced the signing just before leaving the White House for a family retreat in Kennebunkport, has not determined whether he will release $5 billion in contingency money included in the measure, a White House official said.

Against the wishes of the administration, appropriators included language in the supplemental bill that would force the White House to release all the funds-or reject the entire package outright. The president now has 30 days to declare those funds an emergency so that they may be released.

The package includes about $2 billion in homeland security items, including $480 million for the Transportation Security Administration, as well as money for veterans' medical care, election reform, and HIV/AIDS prevention efforts overseas.

One Republican source asserted that if Bush decides not to tap the money, there are "ways to fund the necessary items without accessing the full $5 billion." These, the source indicated, include transferring funds within agencies to get money to the TSA, as well as addressing some matters in the 2003 spending bills.

But not declaring the funds emergencies risks retaliation from appropriators, who say they do not have room within the budget to deal with additional requests in 2003 bills.

"I remain hopeful that, in the coming days, [President Bush] will release the funding included in the bill for veterans health care, for the National Guard and Reserves, and especially for homeland security," Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., said in a statement following the signing.