Senate Approves $500 Million in Benefits for Gulf Troops

Acting with White House blessing, the Senate on Thursday approved a politically popular $500-million benefits package for the troops of Operation Desert Storm and declared that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein should be tried for war crimes for invading Kuwait.

The Senate also barred use of any U.S. funds for rebuilding Iraq while Hussein remains in power, and the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a Bush Administration request for $200 million for Turkey, a member of the anti-Iraq coalition, to cover part of its war costs.

With virtual unanimity, the Senate authorized an initial payment of $15 billion in U.S. funds to pay for the Persian Gulf War effort and created a Defense Cooperation Account to use another $53.5 billion pledged by allies to finance the war. The vote was 97 to 1, with anti-war Sen. Mark O. Hatfield (R-Ore.) the only dissenter.

In a separate, non-binding action, the Senate went on record unanimously in favor of establishing an international court to try Hussein and other Iraqi officials for war crimes in connection with the invasion and occupation of neighboring Kuwait.

The Senate’s package of military pay raises and veterans benefits, worked out with the Administration and Senate leaders of both parties in an effort to keep costs down, was less than half the size of a $1.2-billion package approved Wednesday by the House.

The final composition of the Desert Storm benefits will emerge from a Senate-House conference next week to resolve differences in the two chambers’ bills.

There are common features in both measures, including an increase in combat pay from $110 to $150 a month, retroactive to Aug. 1, the day before Iraq invaded Kuwait. Both houses of Congress also favored doubling the death benefit from $3,000 to $6,000 for survivors of men and women killed after the war began Jan. 17.

Another provision likely to survive Senate-House negotiations would delay a scheduled reduction in mental health benefits for families of members of the armed services from Feb. 15 to the same date next year.

Unlike the House bill, the Senate legislation would authorize $20 million for child care assistance for military personnel on active duty and another $30 million for education and other support services for military families.

The Senate voted to raise GI Bill education benefits for reservists from $140 a month to $270 a month for each month they were called to active duty in connection with the Gulf War. It also would extend Veterans Administration home loan guarantees for 90 to 180 days for recalled reservists.

Senate leaders, however, had to beat down efforts by several members to add more costly benefits for Desert Storm troops and veterans. In a rare show of bipartisan cooperation, key Democratic and Republican leaders joined to defeat attempts to add provisions that went beyond the package worked out with the Office of Management and Budget.

“We must resist the temptation to turn our back on the budget process by creating new and expensive programs,” Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) said at the outset of the debate, which was cut short because a delegation of 18 senators was scheduled to leave Thursday night for a visit with American troops in Saudi Arabia.

Like the House bill, the Senate measure provides that the Administration must use contributions from nations such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Japan and Germany before dipping into the U.S. Treasury to pay for the war.

The Senate was informed that contributing nations have pledged $53.5 billion to defray costs of the conflict and so far have delivered almost $15.2 billion in cash and $2.7 billion in other assistance, such as food and fuel.

Meantime, the Administration formally asked the Senate Appropriations Committee for $200 million to cover additional defense costs of Turkey, which allowed allied planes to use its air bases in the air war against Iraq. Earlier, the President proposed $650 million for Israel to help with its increased war-related expenses, and the House approved the aid.

Turkey originally asked for the same amount, according to a letter written by Budget Director Richard G. Darman to the Senate Appropriations panel, but Bush decided on the lower figure in view of other contributions to Turkey by oil-rich Gulf nations.

The Senate is expected to approve the requested funds for both Israel and Turkey when it considers a Desert Storm appropriations bill next week.