House Panel Votes to Slash Military Spending, Kill B-2

The House Armed Services Committee voted Tuesday to slash some of the Bush Administration’s major military spending programs and recommended the termination of the controversial B-2 Stealth bomber program.

In all, the Democratic-controlled panel recommended cuts of $24 billion from the Pentagon’s $307-billion request for 1991. The committee proposed also to slash the Pentagon’s manpower rolls by 129,000 next year.

Although voting to terminate production of the Stealth, which is built by the Los Angeles-based Northrop Corp., the committee approved $1.7 billion to continue research on radar-eluding aircraft.

In a major political challenge to the Bush Administration, the panel chopped the Administration’s $4.5-billion request for “Star Wars” to $2.9 billion.

In addition, it directed the President to choose between developing a force of small single-warhead mobile missiles and building a network of rail cars and garrisons to house the nation’s force of 10-warhead MX missiles. The Administration has proposed building both.

The committee did approve $600 million for the V-22 Osprey, a Marine aircraft that the Pentagon has proposed terminating to save money. The plane, built in Pennsylvania, takes off like a helicopter but flies like a conventional aircraft.

The Senate is to begin debate as early as Thursday on a bill that would cut $18 billion from Bush’s defense request for next year. The recommendation of the House Armed Services Committee probably will not go to the full House until September.