Senate Panel Deletes Drug Funds, Approves Domestic Spending Bill

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday approved a $3.3-billion domestic spending bill for this year after deleting anti-drug fund provisions that had drawn a White House veto threat.

Adoption of the measure by the full Senate would put the chamber on a collision course with the House, which last week approved a $3.7-billion version of the bill that includes $822 million for federal drug efforts.

The committee approved the legislation on a unanimous voice vote. The Senate was expected to vote on the measure today.

As in the House bill, the biggest portion of the Senate legislation was $1.2 billion for veterans health care, cost-of-living benefit increases and other Department of Veterans Affairs programs.

The department has begun reducing the number of patients it treats, complaining that its coffers are running dry.

“They need this money now,” said Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), who chairs the Appropriations veterans subcommittee.

The most controversial provision is money the House inserted to modernize prisons, hire new drug agents and federal attorneys, and provide substance-abuse counseling.

The funds were included in the House bill after Democrats argued that the money would give financial backing to countless pledges by politicians, including President Bush, to crack down on illicit drugs.

But the Bush Administration and GOP lawmakers argued that law enforcement agencies already have enough money for this year and that the spending would push this year’s federal deficit even higher.

The Democratic-controlled House approved the legislation last Wednesday on a party-line 227-197 vote.