Congress negotiators OK terror bill

12/19/2001

By ALAN FRAM
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON — House-Senate negotiators agreed Tuesday to a compromise $20 billion anti-terrorism package that would divert billions that President Bush wanted for defense to domestic security and communities hit by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Bush rebuffed earlier demands by Democrats for a wider-ranging measure with a price tag that was at least $15 billion higher. But Democrats succeeded in cutting the $7.3 billion Bush wanted for the Pentagon to $3.5 billion, with resulting increases for expenditures at home.

The remaining $16.5 billion was divided roughly evenly between domestic security programs and payments to areas directly affected by the attacks.

The anti-terror money was attached to a compromise $318 billion defense measure for this year. The House was planning to vote on the measure Thursday, and the Senate may as well.

Participants said that to the end, White House officials were trying to boost the measure's defense funds. But with Congress expected to finally finish this year's session at week's end, lawmakers decided they were finished bargaining.

``We're going home,'' said Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin, top Democrat on the House Appropriations panel. ``If the White House wants a defense bill, they'll sign it.''

Even though the Bush administration did not get all the defense funds it wanted out of the anti-terrorism bill, the military money in it will still bring the fiscal 2002 Pentagon budget — contained in several bills — to $345 billion. That is about a 15 percent boost over last year's total.

With the war in Afghanistan and other costs, the Pentagon is expected to get even more money after Congress returns early next year.

Approval of the compromise would clear the major remaining hurdle before Congress finishes its must-pass spending legislation and adjourns for the year.

The defense bill also contains language letting the Air Force lease 100 Boeing 767s for 10 years and refit them to become midflight refueling planes, bolstering the ailing aviation contractor and the military's aging fleet of tankers.

Congressional bargainers also prepared to approve a compromise measure providing $123.8 billion for health, education and labor programs. Participants said the compromise health measure would omit Senate-approved provisions requiring employers who offer medical insurance to cover mental health conditions.

Congress was expected to approve that bill — and a foreign aid measure — on Thursday. Those would be the last of the 13 spending bills for fiscal 2002, which began Oct. 1.

Bush had repeatedly threatened to veto an anti-terrorism measure exceeding $20 billion. He has said the measure provides enough money now for the war in Afghanistan and the battle against terrorism, and that he will seek more early next year if necessary.

Bush proposed spending $4.4 billion for domestic security and $6.3 billion for the affected communities. The Senate approved $8.5 billion for domestic security and $9.5 billion for New York and Virginia, sites of the destroyed World Trade Center and the damaged Pentagon.

The tentative package would include $2.5 billion for public health and countering bioterrorism, about $1 billion more than Bush proposed.

The $20 billion for anti-terrorism programs is half the $40 billion that Congress approved just days after the Sept. 11 attacks. Bush controls half the total, but new legislation must be enacted detailing how the other half will be spent.

All $40 billion was to come from what was once a projected federal surplus for this year. White House and congressional officials now expect a deficit this year, the first since 1997.