$247 Billion Defense Bill Ok’d 2.8 Percent Pay Raise Included For Armed Services
Congress passed a $247.5 billion Pentagon budget bill Thursday that provides a 2.8 percent pay raise for members of the armed services and pushes President Clinton to bring American troops home from Bosnia by next summer.
The bill is the product of a rancorous process which was bogged down by debate over the future of the B-2 Stealth bomber, White House foreign-policy strategies and the cost of U.S. involvement in NATO missions.
Both the House and Senate passed widely differing defense budget plans early this summer. A conference with lawmakers from both chambers crafted the final bill, which passed the House 356-65 and the Senate 93-5. It now needs only President Clinton’s signature to become law.
The compromise represents something of a defeat for the House, which had wanted to fund B-2 production and impose strict guidelines for bringing troops home from Bosnia.
The bill passed Thursday threatens to cut off funding for troops in Bosnia - but only if Clinton cannot show by May 15 how their presence there benefits U.S. national security.
“We feel now that the Bosnia language fulfills our minimum commitment, so at least on Bosnia, we no longer have a veto threat from senior presidential advisers,” said Lawrence Haas, a spokesman for Clinton’s Office of Management and Budget.
Haas said administration officials still are examining other provisions of the bill.
Rep. Randy Cunningham, R-Calif., said the cost of U.S. participation in Bosnia would be $12 billion if troops come home in June. He criticized the administration for sending troops abroad too quickly.
“When people say we spend too much on defense, I ask them to take a look at what our kids are doing,” he said.
The House and Senate began their negotiations on the military spending bill $9 billion apart. They ended with a bill that spends $3 billion more than lawmakers approved last year but is about $627 million less than this year’s House bill had called for.
“This has been a grueling task to get where we are today,” said Rep. Robert Young, the Florida Republican who chairs the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense.
The measure sets aside $69.5 billion for military personnel, including funding for training, equipment, facilities and the pay raise.
The legislation also provides $3.4 billion for four new destroyers for the Navy, $2.3 billion for a new submarine, $1.6 billion for an overhaul of the USS Nimitz, $226 million for five F-15 fighters and $82.5 million for three additional F-16s for the Air Force.
In addition, the F-22 received $2 billion for continued development, while the Joint Strike Fighter program received $448 million.
The Joint Strike Fighter is being developed to replace the F-16, the Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier, a vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, and the Navy F-18. Lockheed is competing with the Boeing Co. for the contract, estimated to be worth as much as $250 billion.
The legislation also would boost production of the Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey aircraft.
Bell and its V-22 partner, Boeing Helicopters of Ridley Township, Pa., would gain $637 million for the V-22 Osprey.
The tilt-rotor Osprey is to be used as a Marine troops transport; the Marines, with their current transport choppers aging, have asked Congress to speed introduction of the V-22. The first Osprey will be delivered in 1999.
The Pentagon budget bill also includes funding for the C-17, an Air Force cargo jet. Congress would spend $1.9 billion for nine more aircraft.
But Northrop Grumman did not do as well on the B-2. Lawmakers debated whether to spend $331 million to maintain the B-2 production line, but they opted to allow the money to be spent on upgrades instead.
The Air Force is expected to use the money to improve some of the 21 existing B-2s. The service will replace skin panels that have proved too sensitive to moisture and have restricted B-2 foreign deployments.
xxxx BOSNIA PROVISION The defense bill threatens to cut off funding for troops - in Bosnia but only if President Clinton cannot show by May 15 how their presence there benefits U.S. national security.