House Backs Almost Full Funding of B-2

House members, in a closed-door meeting with the Senate on a defense spending bill, Wednesday proposed providing almost full funding for the B-2 bomber while severely limiting spending for “Star Wars” and killing the Midgetman missile.

The proposal, which was rejected almost immediately by Senate negotiators, marked the beginning of serious negotiations between the two chambers over the shape of the Pentagon’s budget for the 1990 fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.

It also represented a major change in the House posture on modernization of the nation’s strategic nuclear arsenal. The House-passed defense bill has been condemned repeatedly over the last two months by Senate leaders as well as by President Bush and Defense Secretary Dick Cheney.

House-Senate differences over defense spending now pose the biggest obstacle that Congress faces in resolving the federal budget and are a major impediment to the President’s efforts to proceed with arms control talks with the Soviet Union.

Senate Armed Services Chairman Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) said that the Senate negotiators likely would come up with a full-blown counteroffer before the end of the week. He could not predict what modifications the Senate would propose in the House offer.

Although the Senate supports full funding of B-2, other parts of the House proposal are unacceptable to many senators. Sources said that the senators are particularly upset by the proposal to kill Midgetman, a single-warhead mobile missile that leading congressional Democrats such as Nunn have supported for many years.

Republicans were especially opposed to deep cuts in spending for “Star Wars.” Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.) said that he could support every aspect of the House proposal except for the cut in “Star Wars,” officially the Strategic Defense Initiative.

The House proposal, like the Senate bill, would provide $4.9 billion for development of the B-2 bomber and the production of three planes in fiscal 1990. The measure passed by the House would provide $3.9 billion and authorizes only two planes.

In exchange for accepting the higher Senate spending figure on B-2, House members demanded that the Senate accept a provision in their bill that would require the Pentagon to devise a proposal to reduce the estimated $70-billion total cost of the B-2 program. House members favor buying a smaller fleet of B-2 bombers for the Pentagon, which wants 132 planes.

“Star Wars” would have received only $3.1 billion under the House proposal--a figure that would have represented a major victory for House opponents of SDI. The Senate approved $4.6 billion, or about $300 million less than Bush requested.

In addition, the House proposal would accept the Senate’s decision to spend $1.9 billion to deploy the 10-warhead MX missile on railroad cars--about $500 million more than the House voted.