Panel Backs Dornan on Military Growth, Benefits Policies : Congress: Subcommittee delays debate on discharge of HIV-positive personnel and overseas abortions.

Lawmakers writing the Republicans’ defense policy Thursday endorsed Orange County Rep. Robert K. Dornan’s legislation to halt military force downsizing and increase benefits for service members.

The House National Security Subcommittee on Military Personnel, which Dornan (R-Garden Grove) chairs, postponed a debate over two controversial provisions that deal with abortion and HIV-positive service members. Those issues are expected to be resolved when the full committee meets next Wednesday.

Dornan’s legislation covers about $79 billion of the Department of Defense spending for the next fiscal year and deals with troop levels, health-care benefits, housing needs and the accounting of those still missing in action from the Vietnam War.

Responding to concerns that military forces are shrinking too quickly, Dornan’s bill would end the military downsizing begun in 1990 after the Cold War ended. Now, the Pentagon is on track to eliminate 630,000 people from active-duty forces by 1999.

The legislation by Dornan, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, states that reductions cannot go further than that and should maintain at least 495,000 Army personnel, 174,000 Marines, 395,000 Navy personnel and 381,000 Air force personnel.

In addition, the bill provides for 7,500 additional personnel that the secretary of defense can place in “high-stress” areas, such as Army military police or Patriot missile units, as necessary.

The measure also would provide $750 million over five years to add 1,400 military reserve technicians.

Adding the personnel forced Dornan to give up one of his stated priorities as chairman: raising military pay to make it comparable to the private sector.

Military pay lags 12.8% below the private sector, Dornan said. With a tight federal budget, the subcommittee could only afford to increase housing allowances by 5.2%.

“It came down to a choice of either additional manpower or additional pay,” Dornan said. “This time I opted for manpower, but I remain committed to ensuring that military pay levels remain a top priority.”

The measure also ends military pay for service members jailed for a court-martial. Last year, the Pentagon handed out more than $1 million a month in pay and benefits to military personnel in prison, a Dornan aide said.

“This will end the outrageous practice of continuing military pay in prison to rapists, child molesters and, in a few cases, murderers,” Dornan said.

In a matter important to Dornan, the bill seeks to improve collection of information about persons missing in action from the Vietnam War and ensure that “missing persons are not declared dead simply by the passage of time.”

Dornan steered the subcommittee away from a heated debate over two social issues that Democrats opposed. His measure would force the Pentagon to discharge personnel who test positive for the AIDS virus and would prohibit abortions at overseas U.S. military bases.

Democrats pledged to offer amendments striking those matters at the full committee meeting, where they expect to find more sympathetic members.

At a news conference Thursday, lawmakers and gay rights activists charged Dornan with promoting homophobia and pushing what they described as his “extreme” views through defense legislation.

Rep. Gerry E. Studds (D-Mass.), who is openly gay, said Dornan’s action was an obvious “back-of-the-hand” at “courageous gay men and lesbians in the armed forces.”

When members criticized Dornan during the committee meeting, the congressman, known for passionate outbursts on abortion and gays, withheld his comments and kept the debate civilized.