White House urges hard line on defense spending bill

With floor action on the fiscal 2002 Defense bill on tap for Thursday, Senate Republicans have barely 24 hours to counter Democratic plans to defy President Bush's veto threats by adding another $15 billion in emergency funding to the bill.

But however they proceed, a White House source said the Republican leadership has the administration's "strong support" to do what is necessary to block the extra funding that Bush opposes, even if it means stopping the entire Defense bill.

"Everyone in the administration will strongly support their efforts to remove the funding the President has said will bring a veto," including Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the White House source said.

The Senate Republican Conference is expected to meet this afternoon to discuss various floor options and map out a strategy they can support.

Earlier Tuesday, the Senate Appropriations Committee reported out the $317.2 billion Defense bill after Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., successfully added, by a party line voice vote, a $35 billion supplemental title. The sum includes $20 billion in already-appropriated funds, as well as an extra $15 billion in contingent emergency money.

The $15 billion is divided between domestic recovery assistance, primarily to New York, and "homeland security."

Although the first $20 billion in emergency money is protected from a budget point of order as part of the $40 billion supplemental Congress approved after Sept. 11, the additional $15 billion for New York and homeland security is not.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bill Young, R-Fla., said Tuesday he does not believe Byrd will have the 60 votes necessary to protect the extra $15 billion.

Nonetheless, Young said the Senate vote on Defense spending would largely determine when Congress finishes its 13 spending bills. Senate passage would clear the way for a conference on the most difficult remaining spending bill.

Appropriations ranking member Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said he said the Sept. 11 attacks and the aftermath eventually will require more than the $35 billion in the Senate Defense spending bill. But Stevens said he opposes the extra emergency spending because the President has asked Congress to wait until he requests more next year.

But Byrd argued that, with the third administration terrorism alert issued just two days ago, "It is our duty not to wait."

Republicans have vowed to back up the President's veto threat, possibly beginning a complicated procedural assault on the Democratic plan.

Republicans have discussed raising a point of order against the emergency designation that goes along with the extra $15 billion proposed by Byrd.

If they did so and Democrats failed to muster the 60 votes necessary to waive the point of order, the emergency designation would be stripped--although the money itself would remain.

Should that happen, Republicans could offer an amendment to strike the $15 billion from the bill, needing only a simple majority to win.

If Republicans lacked the 51 votes at that point to remove the $15 billion, the bill would then exceed its so-called 302(b) subcommittee allocation and be subject to a 60-vote point of order.

Even if they did drop the $15 billion, the entire bill is still subject to yet another 60-vote point of order because it would put Congress over the statutory cap on discretionary spending for fiscal 2002. Until that cap is amended in law, it stands at roughly $550 billion in budget authority.

For that reason, GOP aides have said Republicans could simply cut to the chase and raise a point of order against the entire bill as their opening gambit--especially considering that Minority Leader Lott has said Republicans have the 41 votes needed to sustain a point of order.

If that happened, the pending business would still be the underlying House-passed Defense bill, which contains only the $20 billion in supplemental funds that have already been budgeted for.

Then the heat would be on Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., to decide what to do next. To pull the bill from the floor could prompt Republicans to charge that Democrats are holding up the Defense bill even as the nation is at war--an approach already presaged by the White House source.

Arguing that Democrats are to blame for adding money to the bill that Bush and Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge have said is not immediately needed, the source said "why should we deny our troops in the field the funds any longer?"

Hill theorists hold Democrats could be contented with such an approach--to show they would provided the money for things like food security, beefed up border and port security, and other popular items, but were thwarted by Republicans. At the same time, Republicans would be satisfied that they held the line.

At that point, senators on both sides could be willing to simply offer the Defense Subcommittee's $317.2 billion and the $20 billion supplemental title, and let that go to conference with the House. Senators eager to preserve favored projects in the Senate's version of the bill might favor this approach.

The alternative would be a protracted stalemate. Byrd would not predict how matters would unfold.

"That's an iffy question, and I think I'd rather not roll up my britches `till I get to the creek," he said.

A spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said a sixth continuing resolution being taken up today likely would last until next Wednesday, extending the current CR, which expires Friday.

Hastert's spokesman said chances are "negligible" that all 13 annual spending bills would be done by next Wednesday, but the need to pass another CR would keep pressure on the Senate to finish its work on spending bills.

House leaders say they would entertain the idea of a weekend session after next week, if negotiators appear likely to finish work on spending and stimulus bills.

Mark Wegner contributed to this report.