Senate Puts $600 Million Back in ‘Star Wars’ Plan

The Democratic-controlled Senate, in a major reversal, today restored $600 million to President Bush’s “Star Wars” program as part of the $288-billion military spending bill.

The Senate responded to the pleas of several legislators, including leading defense figures, who said they are worried that continuing cuts in the space-based defense initiative would cause irreversible damage to the program.

By a vote of 53 to 47, the Senate adopted an amendment requiring that $4.3 billion of the money appropriated for the Defense Department in the fiscal year beginning Sunday be spent on “Star Wars.”

On Tuesday, the Senate had voted overwhelmingly, 66 to 34, to spend $3.7 billion on “Star Wars,” formally known as the Strategic Defense Initiative, and lawmakers indicated that the vote reflected an erosion in the support for the program.

But the ranking members of the Senate Armed Services Committee--Democrat Sam Nunn of Georgia and Republican John W. Warner of Virginia--argued today that the “Star Wars” total approved Tuesday had undermined their bargaining position in negotiations with the House on the defense authorization bill.

The Senate, in adopting its authorization legislation last month, approved $4.5 billion for “Star Wars.” The House’s defense blueprint earmarked $3.1 billion for the program.

Nunn urged his colleagues to “send a signal to the House conferees” that the Senate wants a final budget number for “Star Wars” that is close to the fiscal 1989 total of $4.1 billion.

But Sen. J. Bennett Johnston (D-La.) questioned whether senators really believe the House is “weak-willed and weak-minded” and wouldn’t know “what’s going on here.”

Johnston said the proponents of the amendment have asked the Senate to “engage in an exercise in self-delusion. . . . Why should we have such loyalty to unattainable goals? The goals (of ‘Star Wars’) are elusive and vague.”