House Backs Defense Bill That Saves Endangered F-22

The House on Wednesday approved a $278-billion defense appropriations bill that will keep alive the imperiled F-22 fighter plane program and provide military personnel with their biggest pay raise in 18 years.

By a 372-55 vote, the chamber passed a compromise measure that gives the military $4.5 billion more than President Clinton recommended and $17 billion more than was spent on defense in fiscal 1999.

The bill is expected to win Senate approval. Although Clinton has not threatened a veto, White House officials said that his signature is not guaranteed because of what they regard as unnecessary spending and gimmicks in the measure.

Barry Toiv, a White House spokesman, said that officials would be taking a “careful look” at the defense funding bill. “We are very concerned about the level of pork in this bill, and they threw in a lot of gimmicks.”

White House officials and some congressional Democrats said that the legislation designates $7.2 billion as “emergency” spending in an effort to evade budgetary caps, even though much of the money is for routine Pentagon operations. Under budget rules, emergency spending is not counted toward the ceiling.

Another gimmick, they complained, is $1.6 billion in “advance procurement” for goods that are to be purchased this year and paid for in fiscal 2001.

The F-22, the Air Force’s highest procurement priority, ran into unexpected danger in July when House appropriators, led by Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands), eliminated $1.8 billion that had been earmarked to begin production of the radar-evading plane. The Senate wanted to begin production, and a pitched fight ensued among congressional conferees.

Congress has rarely canceled a military acquisition program on the eve of production.

The compromise that settled the battle will provide no money for production in the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, but it requires further testing and allows the Air Force to buy six “test” planes. Production could begin in fiscal 2001 if foes of the $200-million plane do not derail those plans in the coming budget cycle.

The appropriations bill will give U.S. troops a 4.8% across-the-board pay raise that Congress hopes will keep them from leaving the services and make it easier to recruit others. With a strong economy and overseas deployments straining military families, recruitment and retention have posed increasing problems for the services.

The measure adds $1.3 billion in operations funding for spare parts, support equipment, base operations and training. Missile defense programs get $3.6 billion, and more than $37 billion will go to research and development, including the Army’s Comanche helicopter and the Air Force’s space-based laser.

The bill includes a $375-million initial installment on a $1.5-billion “mini-carrier” that Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) wants to have built in his home town of Pascagoula. The Navy did not want to start building the ship until 2005.

The measure includes $460 million for programs to reduce the threat of weapons from the former Soviet Union, $848 million for drug interdiction programs, and $11 billion for health research and treatment programs.