House Votes to Halve ‘Star Wars’ Funds

The House voted to slash President Reagan’s “Star Wars” budget for fiscal 1988 by nearly half Tuesday and crushed a proposal by presidential candidate Jack Kemp (R-N.Y.) to deploy part of the space-based anti-missile system by 1993.

The 219-199 vote to cut Reagan’s $5.8-billion request to $3.1 billion was described by Democratic leaders as a tactical move aimed at persuading Senate negotiators to settle on about $3.7 billion--essentially this fiscal year’s spending level plus an allowance for inflation.

Twenty Republicans broke party ranks and joined 199 Democrats in voting for the “Star Wars” cut in an amendment to the defense authorization bill that was offered by Rep. Charles E. Bennett (D-Fla.). Opposed were 48 Democrats and 151 Republicans.

‘Collision’ Weapons

Later, by a 301-122 vote, the House defeated Kemp’s amendment, which called for early deployment of rocket-powered “collision” vehicles that destroy offensive missiles on impact. These kinetic-energy weapons, which Kemp said already are “on the shelf,” would be deployed while research continued on exotic laser and particle-beam weapons in the “Star Wars” program, known formally as the Strategic Defense Initiative.

Kemp, who said that he wanted “to send a very sharp signal to the Administration that this is not a technical debate, it is a political debate,” has made the proposal a major part of his campaign for the 1988 Republican presidential nomination.

However, 58 of his GOP House colleagues voted against the proposal, and nearly unanimous Democrats attacked the weapons as costly, ineffective and in violation of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with the Soviet Union.

Curbing Tests

The vote reiterated one taken by the House last week that would require the Administration to conform to a narrow interpretation of the ABM treaty. The action would bar the sort of testing and deployment of “Star Wars” weapons that is being considered by Reagan under a broader reading of the treaty.

The Senate Armed Services Committee has recommended $4.5 billion for the “Star Wars” program in its version of the defense bill for fiscal 1988, which begins Oct. 1. The House’s military panel proposed $3.6 billion, but committee Chairman Les Aspin (D-Wis.) urged a reduction to $3.1 billion Tuesday “because the Senate has come up with a pretty high number, and I’m a little worried about how things will come out in a Senate-House conference.”

Rep. Vic Fazio (D-Sacramento) predicted that negotiators will agree on about $3.7 billion, which he said would permit “a robust program” of continued research but not “premature deployment.”

Colorful Debate

Debate on the $3.1-billion Bennett amendment was heated and colorful. Apparently indignant at the efforts to pare the program, Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) asked: “Are we talking about the defense of the United States or are we selling rugs or used cars? . . . This is not some Arab market, where we’re pulling some dirty rug back and forth.”

On the other hand, Rep. Pat Williams (D-Mont.) denounced the “Star Wars” project as “America’s pet rock. It has no value except for those trying to sell it.” Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) called the program “a pork-in-space project,” although high-tech firms in his home state stand to benefit substantially from “Star Wars” research contracts.

Before adopting the $3.1-billion figure, the House throttled funding proposals at the upper and lower extremes of the debate. Rep. Duncan L. Hunter (R-Coronado) proposed a $4.1-billion authorization. Two other Californians, Reps. Ronald V. Dellums (D-Berkeley) and Barbara Boxer (D-Greenbrae), advocated killing the “Star Wars” program and spending $1.2 billion on other missile defense research instead.

‘Naked’ Against Attack

“We are absolutely naked against incoming missiles,” Hunter said in arguing for large-scale spending. “We have a constitutional obligation to protect the American people.”

Boxer asserted that her amendment would “do away with a pie-in-the-sky concept that scientists say cannot work.” She contended that the “Star Wars” project is a budget-buster that would cost as much as $1 trillion and would simply escalate the arms race with the Soviets.