Defense measure includes language on military benefits

The House approved the fiscal 2006 defense authorization conference report by a 374-41 vote early Monday after House leaders dropped a bid to attach campaign finance language affecting so-called 527 organizations.

Passage of the legislation capped a weekend standoff between House leadership and Senate Armed Services Chairman John Warner, R-Va., who had said he would use "every available means" to block the provision from his bill, which has taken a rocky path through Congress in recent months.

The Senate is expected to take up the measure Monday. The bill includes a Senate amendment requiring the president to submit quarterly, unclassified reports on the status of operations in Iraq, as well as compromise language reached last week by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and the White House that bans detainee torture. It also includes defense policy provisions ranging from military benefits to weapons system acquisition.

Over the weekend, Senate Republican conferees and their Democratic colleagues from both chambers threatened to strip their signatures from the defense authorization conference report, signed Friday afternoon before House leaders disclosed their plans to add the provision to the bill.

House Armed Services Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., spent much of Sunday in talks with House leadership, continuing an ongoing struggle in both chambers to wrap the bill up before Congress adjourned for the year, aides said. Last week, Hunter had threatened to hold up the bill until after the White House assured him their agreement with McCain on detainee policy would not hinder intelligence gathering.

Specifically, House leaders wanted to add a bill sponsored by Reps. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., and Martin Meehan, D-Mass., that would subject 527 organizations to the same reporting and expenditure restrictions as political committees outlined in the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971.

But they also planned to insert additional language contained in a competing measure introduced by Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., that repeals limits on the amount parties can spend on behalf of candidates in general elections. Meehan, a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, said Sunday that the move was an "underhanded, unconscionable way for them to undo campaign finance laws."

Added House Armed Services ranking member Ike Skelton, D-Mo., "This is Christmastime, but this is no time to Christmas-tree a solid piece of legislation."

A senior GOP aide said House Republicans might revert to an earlier plan to attach the language to another piece of legislation after Congress reconvenes next year.

The bill includes language that further expands the military's TRICARE healthcare system for National Guard and reserve troops over last year's authorization measure. The bill also authorizes increases in troop levels in the Army by 30,000 troops and the Marine Corps by 4,000 in fiscal 2006, and raises enlistment and re-enlistment bonuses.

In addition, it authorizes the president's full $1.8 billion request for the Navy's next-generation DD(X) destroyer, a program the House had recommended cutting by $1.1 billion. It also authorizes a $100 million cut from the administration's $3.2 billion budget request for the Army's massive Future Combat Systems and requires the comptroller general to review the program annually, a House aide said.