Panel Votes $2.5 Billion for ‘Star Wars’ Research

The House Appropriations Committee voted today to spend $2.5 billion this year for “Star Wars” research and rejected a proposal to cut deeper into President Reagan’s plan to find a high-tech shield against Soviet nuclear missiles.

The decision came as the panel worked its way through a huge appropriation bill for the Defense Department for the current fiscal year. The bill contains most of the proposed $292-billion Pentagon budget.

Still awaiting final House approval is a separate measure authorizing the Pentagon to spend $302.5 billion this year. The appropriation measure is smaller because the authorizing bill includes some projects that would be paid for in later years.

The Appropriations defense subcommittee had proposed spending $2.5 billion this year for the Strategic Defense Initiative, the formal name of Reagan’s program, instead of the $2.75 billion in the authorization bill. Reagan sought $3.7 billion for the program, compared to $1.4 billion in the last fiscal year.

Rep. Vic Fazio (D-Sacramento) moved today to cut the Star Wars appropriation to $2.1 billion, telling his colleagues that “we need to bring Star Wars down to Earth.”

But the committee rejected his proposal, 31 to 23, and thus accepted the $2.5-billion total.

Rep. Tom Loeffler (R-Tex.), opposed the cut, telling the panel that “what we’re doing now is playing into the hands of the Soviet leadership. The worst thing we can do is be an opponent of the President as he is facing the other superpower.”

Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev will hold a summit meeting next month in Geneva, and Star Wars is expected to be a major item on the agenda. The Soviets, who have their own strategic defense program, have strongly opposed the U.S. research program and say curbs on the U.S. system are necessary to win cuts in offensive nuclear stockpiles.