House OKs Troop, Veteran Benefits : Budget: The bill will not take effect unless Bush agrees to make the $1.2 billion in outlays exempt from spending caps.

In a maneuver apparently designed to place President Bush in a political bind, the Democrat-controlled House on Wednesday included $1.2 billion in military pay raises and new veterans benefits in a bill authorizing payment for Operation Desert Storm.

The measure provides that the benefits will not be paid, however, unless the President agrees with the House Democratic leadership that they are emergency outlays and thus exempt from the spending caps imposed by last year’s budget agreement.

If the measure is approved by Congress in its current form, Bush would either have to go along with the over-budget provisions or disapprove the benefits at a time when victory in the Persian Gulf War appears to have intensified pro-military and patriotic feelings.

Although Republicans protested that the new Democratic tactic would unravel the budget deal, the House refused on a 248-175 roll call to require other spending cuts or higher revenues to offset the $1.2-billion expenditure over five years.

Bush, however, probably will not face the dilemma of either rebuffing Desert Storm troops and veterans groups or undercutting last year’s Budget Enforcement Act. The Office of Management and Budget said Administration officials have reached agreement with Senate leaders of both parties on a trimmed-down list of military and veterans benefits that is expected to be enacted after Senate-House negotiations.

Key Democrats, however, said the technique of labeling new spending programs as “emergencies” to avoid the spending caps would be used again, perhaps in the field of health care or anti-recession legislation.

The House bill, which authorizes $15 billion as a down payment on war costs but requires multibillion-dollar allied contributions to Desert Storm to be used first, passed by a vote of 398 to 25. A companion measure is expected to be approved soon in the Senate.

Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) said the benefits package endorsed by White House and Senate officials would cost about $500 million, or less than half of the amount approved by the House.

The House, for example, approved sharp increases in “GI Bill” education benefits, raising the assistance by $100 to $400 a month for three-year enlistees and increasing it by $110 to $250 a month for reservists and National Guardsmen.

The OMB said in a statement, however, that a provision in the Senate leadership package would cost only one-tenth as much as the House had authorized for this purpose. The agency said the President’s senior advisers would recommend a veto if the House position prevails in a Senate-House conference.

In the House, the inclusion of military pay raises and long-contemplated veterans benefit increases in an “emergency” authorization bill drew heavy criticism from Republicans and some Democrats concerned with the budget process.

“Turning our backs on the budget agreement . . . is not the way we should show our concern for veterans,” House Minority Leader Robert H. Michel (R-Ill.) said. “Will we break and run and surrender to political expediency?”

Rep. Leon E. Panetta (D-Carmel Valley), chairman of the House Budget Committee and a major architect of the new budget accord, said it is wrong to characterize benefits for veterans and Desert Storm troops as emergency outlays to evade spending ceilings.

“If we believe these benefits are important, let’s pay for them,” Panetta argued. “We have to maintain discipline here.”

But proponents of the additional military compensation and more benefits for veterans easily carried the day in the House.

“Let’s not be remembered as a body that applauded our troops in war and turned our back on them in peace,” Rep. Chet Edwards (D-Tex.) said.

Or as Rep. G. V. (Sonny) Montgomery (D-Miss.), chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, put it: “Let’s stand up for the veterans. God bless America.”