The Nation : Panel Votes Defense Cuts

The House Budget Committee voted to slash President Reagan’s military spending request by more than $23 billion, as Republicans sat out the vote in protest of the panel’s procedures. The committee, by a vote of 13 to 8, with six Republicans voting only “present,” tentatively approved $288.7 billion in spending authority for defense programs in fiscal 1988. Reagan’s budget had requested $312 billion. GOP leaders complained that the Democrats had tried to shut them out of the budget review process and invited full GOP participation only after private Democratic meetings failed to yield a consensus.