House Votes Down 2 Proposals to Block MX Missile Purchases

The House on Monday shot down two attempts to kill planned purchases of the MX missile, the nuclear weapon at the center of numerous congressional fights in the last four years.

The two votes rejected a proposed amendment to a bill authorizing the Pentagon’s budget for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1.

The bill before the Democratic-controlled chamber proposes spending $292 billion, far less than President Reagan’s proposed $320-billion military budget. The current Pentagon budget is $286 billion.

Last week, the Republican-run Senate adopted a military budget of $295 billion that included funds for the purchase of 21 MX missiles. The House bill proposes buying 12 of the 10-warhead weapons.

The dozens of differences between the two bills, including the MX missile appropriation, will be reconciled next month in a conference committee.

The votes on the MX were the first of several the House will take this week as it plows through the military spending bill. Among the issues still to be settled are chemical weapons, the “Star Wars” anti-missile research program, and continued adherence to the SALT II nuclear treaty that Reagan says he will abandon.

The House voted down, 210 to 178, a proposal to block the spending of the $1.1 billion for MX weapons contained in the bill. Instead, under the proposal, about $825 million of that money would be spent to reduce the federal deficit and the rest would go for buying non-nuclear weapons.

The representatives later voted, 217 to 179, against a similar amendment that would have prohibited buying the weapons. That amendment called for spending half of the $1.1 billion for conventional weapons and using the other half to reduce the deficit.