Conferees OK $291.8-Billion Defense Bill

House and Senate conferees completed work Tuesday night on a $291.8-billion defense authorization bill for fiscal 1987 after agreeing to language urging continued compliance with SALT II arms limits.

The final authorization is $28.5 billion less than what President Reagan had requested for defense. The compromise comes close to a halfway point between the House and Senate versions of the defense authorization bill. The House would have authorized $286 billion and the Senate $295 billion.

The conferees agreed to language stating that continued compliance with the limits on nuclear armaments set by the unratified SALT II treaty was in the nation’s best interests.

The House had voted to require continued SALT II compliance, and the Senate had urged President Reagan to continue observing the treaty.

Chemical Weapons

In return for adopting SALT II language more favorable to House conferees, Senate negotiators won a provision allowing the Pentagon to proceed with production of chemical weapons.

The conferees agreed to allow production of the 155-millimeter chemical artillery shell but included language saying the Army could not “fill, load, assemble or pack” the shell during the current fiscal year.

Conferees also agreed to allow production of the Bigeye chemical bomb to begin Oct. 1, 1987, with final assembly put off until Oct. 1, 1988, giving Congress the opportunity to reconsider the issue.

The House had passed by one vote a ban on production of any chemical weapons in the current fiscal year. The Senate, by a similar one-vote margin, had approved production of the Bigeye bomb beginning next year.

Although the Senate gave in some to the House on SALT II, “we tilted a little bit toward them on chemical weapons,” said Rep. Les Aspin (D-Wis.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

Union Wages

The conferees also compromised on efforts to limit the payment of union wages by defense contractors and on an affirmative action program for minority contractors.

The conferees scuttled House and Senate-passed provisions that would have restricted the application of the Davis-Bacon labor standards act to defense contractors. Both sides agreed to go back to the status quo, under which contractors on projects worth more than $2,500 are required to pay prevailing local wages.

In the 1986 fiscal year, Congress authorized $302.5 billion for defense, $19.7 billion less than Reagan’s request.