Senate Rejects Deeper Military Budget Cuts : Congress: Lawmakers fear further job losses in defense industry. President Bush’s 1993 spending plan moves closer to approval.

The Senate Thursday rejected a series of last-ditch attempts by Democrats to force deeper cuts in military outlays and moved toward approval of a fiscal 1993 budget resolution that essentially goes along with the defense-spending reductions proposed by President Bush.

Although the situation could change later in the appropriations process, Thursday’s action all but ended prospects that Democrats will be able to go much beyond Bush’s proposed cuts in defense spending for the coming fiscal year, which begins on Oct. 1.

The budget resolution sets ceilings for overall outlays and for spending in key categories such as defense.

The President wants to trim Pentagon spending by $50 billion over five years, with $7.4 billion in cuts coming in fiscal 1993.

The House passed a budget resolution earlier this month that calls for defense cutbacks of about $6.6 billion beyond what Bush has proposed for 1993. A compromise will have to be worked out when the budget measure reaches a House-Senate conference committee later this month.

Analysts cautioned that the real battles over defense are expected to be fought in fiscal 1994 and later and warned that, while Thursday’s vote was an initial victory for the President, the broader battle will continue in coming years.

Thursday’s action reflected fears by lawmakers of both parties that cutting the Pentagon budget too sharply now would risk throwing too many defense-industry workers out of jobs and would add to the current unemployment problem in the midst of a recession.

Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that cutting much below Bush’s proposal would cause “very severe disruptions not only in our defense but also in our overall economy.” Many senators--both liberal and conservative--appeared to agree.

Concern about jobs has been a major factor in dampening enthusiasm in Congress for forcing deeper cuts in defense spending that might free up more federal money for domestic programs.

Initially, some lawmakers had proposed radical cuts ranging from a plan by Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) to trim $100 billion over five years to one by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) to slash $115 billion.

Thursday’s action on defense spending came in votes on two amendments:

--First, the Senate defeated, 50 to 45, a plan by Sen. J. James Exon (D-Neb.) that would have sliced another $8.2 billion from Bush’s budget for fiscal 1993, restored funding for the B-2 bomber and other big-ticket programs and cut back on dozens of smaller weapons.

--Senators then rejected, 62 to 36, a move by Sen. Bill Bradley (D-N.J.) to slice an additional $7 billion from the defense budget in fiscal 1993--and to cut $11 billion in each of the four following years--and rechannel it to domestic programs and to reducing the deficit.

--And they tabled a third proposal, this one by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), that would have trimmed another $6 billion more than Bush has proposed. That measure was defeated by a vote of 53 to 40.

Democratic defections on all three measures were heavy. “The military-industrial complex is alive and well,” Exon grumbled.

The Senate was expected to complete work on the full budget resolution today. It will be sent to a House-Senate conference committee later this month. The measure that emerges from that panel will establish the ceilings for defense outlays and other spending.

Gordon Adams, director of the Defense Budget Project research group, said that while the armed services and appropriations committees in both the House and Senate may still alter individual components of the defense budget, the Democrats have “moved most of the way” toward Bush.

The overall Senate budget resolution would call for total federal outlays of $1.5 trillion in fiscal 1993 and a budget deficit of $328 billion. The deficit for fiscal 1992 is an estimated $367 billion.

Defense spending authority--a figure that combines current operations and start-up spending for future projects, would be set at $281 billion, in line with the $282.2 billion recommended by the President and up from $274.4 billion in the resolution approved by the House.

Actual military outlays for fiscal 1993 would be $291.5 billion, compared to $292 billion proposed by the White House and $287.2 billion provided for in the House budget resolution.

The differences in defense-spending targets were the major areas of dispute between the Senate and the White House budget plans. The Democrats provided slightly more for spending on welfare, while Bush calls for a little more for the space program.