House OKs $15 Billion for War, Disasters

The House Tuesday night overcame concerns about excess spending and scores of special interest provisions to approve a $15-billion emergency package to finance the war in Yugoslavia and provide a broad assortment of disaster relief and refugee assistance.

By a vote of 269 to 158, the House approved a compromise with the Senate that provides twice the amount requested by President Clinton to underwrite NATO’s air war, funds a military pay raise and offers nearly $1 billion for relief and reconstruction efforts in hurricane-ravaged Central America.

Although the House in the past has been more inclined to load up must-pass bills with controversial amendments advancing political or philosophical agendas, this time it was House members voicing outrage over measures added by the Senate that were deemed harmful to the environment or overly helpful to special interests.

The bill contains provisions to protect oil, hard-rock and gold mining and Alaskan fishing interests. Money was added to build sewers in Salt Lake City for the Olympics, subsidize reindeer ranchers and buy a new satellite for National Public Radio.

The legislation also contains a measure that frees the 50 states to spend a $250-billion settlement with the tobacco industry as they see fit, rather than earmarking part of it for anti-smoking and health programs, as Clinton favors.

“There are some things wrong with this bill but there are other things rotten about this bill,” said Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.). “Under the cover of darkness, conferees--folks from the other chamber--are attempting to shove down our throats measures that would never pass the laugh test . . . on the floor of this House.”

The Senate amendment that drew some of the strongest criticism would override the Interior Department’s efforts to block an open-pit gold mining operation in Washington state. But with the GOP congressional leadership and the White House in essential harmony over the critical defense spending figures in the bill, there was little doubt about the outcome of Tuesday night’s vote.

The emergency measure, hammered out over a three-day period by House and Senate appropriators last week, is scheduled to be considered in the Senate today, where passage is all but certain.

About three-fourths of the package, or $12 billion, will go for the NATO air war and humanitarian relief for refugees from Kosovo. Clinton originally requested roughly $6 billion for those efforts.

The bill also contains $988 million for disaster relief in Central America, devastated by Hurricane Mitch last November, and stepped-up border enforcement by the Immigration and Naturalization Service to prevent a surge of illegal immigration. And it provides $100 million in aid to Jordan, a U.S. ally in the Middle East.

The emergency legislation also takes care of important domestic constituencies: There is $574 million in assistance for distressed farmers and $900 million for emergency assistance to the victims of recent tornadoes in Oklahoma, Kansas and elsewhere.

Because of the legislation’s special emergency status, most of the spending will be financed with surpluses generated by the Social Security trust fund. However, more than $2 billion of the spending will be offset by cuts in other programs, including $1.2 billion of unspent food stamp funds and $350 million from the Section 8 low-income housing program.