Senate Shelves Defense Authorization Bill : Spending: Action on the measure is blocked by conservatives after signs that ‘Star Wars’ funding would be scaled back.

The Senate apparently abandoned a fiscal 1993 defense authorization bill after conservatives blocked further action on the measure Monday in the face of a near certainty that funds for the Strategic Defense Initiative would be cut.

The decision to shelve the bill could mean that the Pentagon may be forced to settle for less money than it has requested next year for some programs. Congress is required by law to pass an authorization bill before appropriating funds for new programs. How lawmakers will resolve the problem is uncertain.

The unusual development was more evidence of disarray in the Senate, whose leadership proved unable Monday to obtain the necessary procedural agreements to pass the authorization bill before Congress recesses later this week for the Republican convention.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) said the situation would throw into doubt several key programs that had been part of the authorization measure, including an “economic conversion” plan for companies and workers hit hard by defense cutbacks.

It was not immediately clear whether the decision to abandon the defense authorization bill would be final. Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) and Republican leaders were still trying late Monday to engineer some sort of compromise on the SDI issue.

But Nunn told reporters after the move that barring some sort of reversal, “the odds are against this (authorization) bill being approved this year.” He called the abandonment of the bill Monday “a tragedy” from a policy-making standpoint.

Monday’s action came in the wake of a test vote on Friday in which senators refused to table a move by Sen. Jim Sasser (D-Tenn.) that would have cut spending on the SDI program to $3.3 billion, from the $4.3 billion provided in the original authorization bill.

The 49-43 vote on the Sasser amendment was heralded as a sign that after years of trying to cut the SDI program, opponents of the “Star Wars” venture were finally likely to prevail. President Bush has said repeatedly he would veto the defense bill if the SDI program were cut sharply.

Although Sasser had agreed to postpone a vote on the measure until today if necessary to give proponents of the SDI program a chance to try to muster more support, the Senate proved unable on Monday to move to a vote on that or any other issue in the bill.

When Mitchell attempted Monday afternoon to obtain unanimous agreement for the Senate to vote on the Sasser amendment today, Sen. Malcolm Wallop (R-Wyo.), a key proponent of the SDI plan, objected--effectively preventing the Senate from finishing the bill this week.

As a result, Mitchell and Nunn pulled the defense measure from the floor entirely.

Strategists said it was unclear how the Senate would get out of the predicament posed by its failure to pass a defense authorization bill. The situation is so rare that those managing the bill have not had to deal with it before.

Technically, the chamber could recover by passing a so-called “continuing resolution” that gives the Pentagon authority to keep spending for individual programs at fiscal 1992 levels. But that strategy would prohibit changes from previous levels or for new programs.

Ironically, Wallop’s blocking action does not guarantee that the Senate will provide the full $4.3 billion for the SDI program. Sen. Dale Bumpers (D-Ark.) said he would try again to cut the SDI program when the defense appropriations bill comes to the floor.

The recommendation in the authorization bill itself was a reduction from what Bush had sought for the SDI program. The White House had proposed spending $5.4 billion for the “Star Wars” plan, but the Armed Services Committee had cut that back.

Also unclear was what would happen to the controversial B-2 Stealth bomber program, which was to have been the target this week of a second attempt by liberals to slash defense spending further.

Bush had sought approval to build four new B-2 aircraft, but liberals wanted to halt production of the 16 B-2s that have been ordered so far. The planes are manufactured in Palmdale by the California-based Northrop Corp.