Clinton Objects to, but Will Sign, Defense Spending Bill : Budget: He has called the measure too costly. But its allocation for Bosnia mission is cited as the reason he will endorse the legislation.

President Clinton decided Thursday to sign a defense spending bill because it will provide the money to send troops and other support to Bosnia.

“This legislation is vital to fund our national defense so that the United States remains the strongest force for peace in the world,” Clinton said in a statement Thursday night.

“I made this decision because my Administration has reached agreement with congressional leaders to provide funding, out of the funds contained in this bill, for the troop deployment and other efforts to secure peace in Bosnia.”

Clinton repeated his strong reservations about the bill, which he said contains “excessive spending for projects that are not currently needed for defense.”

“I will forward to Congress rescission legislation that would eliminate funding for those projects, and I urge Congress to act on it,” he said.

Clinton’s announcement came hours after budget talks on Capitol Hill broke down, with Republicans saying they would not give the President what he wanted in return for his signature, namely billions of dollars extra for domestic programs.

“The decision I am making tonight is consistent with our understanding that these discussions will continue with the goal of reaching a satisfactory conclusion as rapidly as possible,” Clinton said.

One Administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said talks with congressional Republicans might continue today on the remaining domestic spending bills.

Instead of giving Clinton the money he wants for domestic programs, GOP leaders said they would consider easing planned cuts in education, job training and other Administration domestic initiatives only after the two sides strike a budget-balancing deal.

“You can’t divorce the two,” said House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.). “It’s all the budget.”

The GOP strategy further complicated an enormously tangled decision for the President, who was traveling in Northern Ireland. Clinton was worried that vetoing the Pentagon spending measure might jeopardize Republican support for his plan to send a 20,000-troop U.S. peacekeeping force to Bosnia.

The $243-billion defense bill contains $7 billion more than Clinton wants, mostly for weapons programs.

The President had until midnight Thursday to veto the bill or sign it, or it would have become law automatically.

As he pondered his decision, bipartisan budget negotiators broke off talks until Monday, with each side accusing the other of not bargaining seriously. The negotiations, which began Tuesday, are aimed at finding a compromise plan for balancing the budget by 2002.

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As they stalked out of their Capitol meeting room, Republicans said Clinton had not yet proposed a true balanced budget, and Democrats said the GOP was refusing to discuss the impact on the public of their plans to carve savings from Medicare, Medicaid and other social programs.

“It probably understates it to say this is off to a rocky start,” said Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.), one of the bargainers.

A senior Administration official agreed, accusing Republicans of deliberately “blowing up” the session.

“I think these guys aren’t ready to negotiate,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “They clearly made a decision before the meeting began that they didn’t want to have any real negotiations before next week.”

Republicans see linking the budget talks to the Administration’s desire for extra domestic money as a way to pressure the President to take the budget bargaining seriously.

“He’s looking for cooperation in many areas these days, and we’d like to see a two-way street,” said Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.). “We’re talking about the budget, we’re talking about appropriations, we’re talking about Bosnia, we’re talking about a whole host of things.”

The White House fired back that the Administration was not the obstacle to reaching an agreement for eliminating federal deficits.

“The key to an agreement is the willingness of the Republican leadership to adequately protect the President’s priorities,” Vice President Al Gore told reporters. He referred to Administration demands that Medicare, Medicaid, education and other programs be protected from excessive cuts.

The additional domestic money the Administration wants immediately is for four annual spending bills--called appropriations bills--that Congress has not yet sent to Clinton. Those bills cover fiscal 1996, which began Oct. 1.

White House officials and GOP lawmakers spent much of this week negotiating over the defense spending bill and the four domestic measures that would finance the departments of Health and Human Services, Veterans’ Affairs, Commerce, Interior and scores of other agencies and programs.

During those talks, the White House said Clinton would sign the defense bill if it covers the costs of U.S. forces in Bosnia. The Administration estimates those operations will cost $2 billion for one year, plus another $600 million to rebuild roads and other public works projects. Republicans say the price tag could be higher.

In addition, the Administration wants Republicans to ease their planned cuts in the four domestic spending bills by $6.5 billion. That represents about one-third of the $22 billion the GOP would cut from the amounts Clinton proposed for those bills.

The defense bill also contains language banning abortions at overseas military hospitals, except in cases of rape and incest or to save the life of the mother. The language strikes at one of Clinton’s first acts as President, an executive order eliminating abortion restrictions imposed by President Ronald Reagan.