Aspin Threatens to Delay Defense Vote : Wants President to Support Congress’ Limit of 50 MX Missiles

Rep. Les Aspin (D-Wis.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Tuesday threatened to delay a final House vote authorizing $302.5 billion in fiscal 1986 defense spending unless President Reagan agrees to abide by Congress’ limit of 50 MX missiles that can be deployed.

In letters to Reagan and Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger, Aspin took exception to recent remarks in which Weinberger indicated that he still wants to deploy 100 MXs--twice as many as Congress has authorized.

Spending Vetoes

He also became the first ranking member of Congress to publicly object to recent statements by White House officials that the President intends to veto some spending bills this fall, even if they are passed at levels set by Congress in a joint budget resolution approved in late July.

Aspin, whose prerogative as committee chairman includes the power to delay votes on defense bills, said these matters “need to be straightened out before the House gives final approval to the legislation.”

The defense authorization bill cleared the Senate shortly before Congress adjourned. But a final vote was held up in the House when some Democrats objected that Aspin, in a conference committee with the Senate, had agreed to an overall spending figure that exceeded the House-authorized level by about $10 billion.

“The problem is that the House is dealing with two groups--the Senate and the Administration,” Aspin said. “We need to know whether or not the Administration agrees with the Senate’s compromise before we give it our final approval--whether it covers MX, the dollars for defense and other things in the bill.”

The bill would impose a limit of 50 on the number of MX missiles that the Administration could deploy in existing Minuteman silos and it would specifically rule out deployment of additional missiles unless the Administration proposed a different basing mode. Advocates of the limit argue that the missiles are vulnerable to Soviet attack in the existing silos.

Although the President agreed to the limit earlier this year, Administration officials have since indicated that they hope to persuade Congress to allow the deployment of more missiles later.

Weinberger’s Statement

Aspin objected specifically to an Aug. 8 statement by Weinberger, who expressed the view that Congress could be persuaded as early as next year to permit deployment of more than 50 missiles in existing silos if those silos are modified to better protect against a Soviet first strike.

The Armed Services Committee chairman said that “the 50-missile cap is permanent and that options for change placed in the legislation were put there in case some new basing system were found or there were dramatic changes in the international situation.”

In response, Pentagon spokesman Jim Turner said that the Administration agrees with the language of the bill, “but that doesn’t take away from the view that 50 MX missiles are not enough.” He added: “We are hopeful that Congress will eventually agree to 100.”

On the issue of a possible presidential veto of domestic spending bills this fall, Aspin asked: “I would like to know why the House should vote for the defense (bill)--which is more than the House wanted to spend on defense but consistent with the budget resolution--if the Administration is going to veto domestic spending that is higher than it wants but consistent with the budget resolution?”