Lott joins conservatives against 'emergency' spending

Inside Washington

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R.-Miss.) has joined congressional conservatives in opposing a new off-budget "emergency- spending bill that would dump more money into last year's already bloated budget. The bill (HR 3908), which was approved by the House Appropriations Committee on March 9, includes:

* $1.7 billion for Colombia and other Latin American countries to fight drugs.

* $2.2 billion for Hurricane Floyd victims.

* $600 million to repair roads damaged by storms.

* $1.6 billion for the Pentagon for higher fuel costs.

* $2 billion to cover costs of Kosovo peacekeeping.

The bill also offers as "emergency" provisions:

* $20 million to replace a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) abo

* $16 million for hastening environmental restoration in Ohio and Kentucky.

* $75 million for NASA.

It contains $3.6 billion for the Defense Department (Clinton had asked for a $2.8 billion).

Rep. Tom Campbell (R.-Calif.), an outspoken opponent of the war against Yugoslavia, may try to use the supplemental-if House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R.-III.) brings it up for a floor vote-to set a pull-out date for U.S. troops still in Kosovo. "We're looking at various options," said a spokesman for Campbell. `he congressman still believes the use of force in Kosovo was unconstitutional because Congress did not authorize it."

On March 21, Lott spoke against the bill. "It's getting to be far too costly," he said. "I've urged all along that if we are going to do a supplemental, it be quick and clean. It's not quick, and it's not clean."

Lott said that though money was needed to pay for Kosovo and for anti-drug efforts in Colombia, there was no reason the money could not be allocated through the normal appropriations process and counted as part of this year's budget.

This pits him against congressional Democrats, House appropriators, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R.-Alaska), Speaker Hastert (R.-Ill.), House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R.-Tex.), and House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R.-Tex.), all of whom favor the spending bill.

Conservatives, including Rep. Tom Coburn (R.-Okla.), who emerged last year as the leading budget hawk in the House, are backing language inserted into the committee draft of this year's House budget resolution that would require the 2001 budget to be reduced by whatever amount is put into so-called emergency supplemental bills for last year's budget. Once in place, the rule could be waived only by a majority vote in the House and a 60-member vote in the Senate.

Anti-Gimmick Gramm

Sen. Phil Gramm (R.-Tex.), a member of the Senate Budget Committee, has vowed to make certain a similar enforcement mechanism passes on the Senate side. "I'm going to defeat this budget if we can't work it out in committee," he said. "My first demand is to stop all the cheating and gimmicks and let's have an enforcement mechanism." Because Republicans have only a 12-to-10 edge on the committee, Gramm could indeed doom the budget there.

Both House Appropriations Chairman Bill Young (R.Fla.) and Senate Appropriations Chairman Ted Stevens (R.Alaska) oppose an enforcement mechanism.

Copyright Human Events Publishing, Inc. Mar 31, 2000
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved