Clinton Signs Defense Bill, Averting Risky Veto Battle

President Clinton signed the $268-billion defense spending bill Monday, averting what would have been a tough and risky drive to coax Democrats to uphold a veto.

Clinton complained that the bill contained spending for projects the Pentagon had not requested and used budget gimmicks such as declaring $7 billion in base maintenance an “emergency” that would not count against spending limits.

Nonetheless, he said, “In good conscience I cannot allow our national security needs to be held hostage to this budget battle.”

Clinton’s decision leaves him battling Republicans over five spending bills to achieve his demands for $5 billion to $10 billion more to hire teachers and police officers, to buy park land and to fund foreign aid and other programs.

Clinton also vetoed $35-billion legislation to fund the Commerce, Justice and State departments, complaining it would inadequately fund U.S. obligations to the United Nations and undermine efforts to hire more police.

But by signing the Pentagon measure, Clinton avoided escalating and prolonging the budget fight and intensifying bitter feelings between the parties.

“Although we’ll continue to have some period of time of hard work, yes, I’m optimistic this makes it even that much easier” to resolve the budget battle, House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) told reporters.

In recent days, Clinton had considered rejecting the measure to gain leverage in the budget fight by making it a bargaining chip in his push for more money.

In the end, the bill proved too laden with popular spending for a veto to be politically feasible. Costing $4.5 billion more than Clinton requested, the bill included money for a 4.8% military pay raise and scores of projects for lawmakers’ home districts. Some Democrats had said they would work to override the veto.

Failure to round up enough Democratic votes to uphold a veto would have weakened Clinton’s hand in budget talks and would have been a stinging foreign affairs defeat, especially after the Senate’s Oct. 13 rejection of the global nuclear test ban treaty. For his veto to prevail, Clinton would have needed one-third plus one of the votes of either the House or Senate.

Clinton told reporters he believed he could have won but worried that Democrats would be “attacked by the Republicans for being against the defense budget that the Democratic Party has basically pursued.”

Clinton’s signature on the bill avoided exposing Democrats to a traditional GOP accusation that they are soft on defense. White House officials also hope it will focus attention on Clinton’s battle with Republicans over his budget proposals and the GOP’s plan to cut federal agencies’ spending by 1.4%.

Besides building up equipment depleted by the war with Yugoslavia, the legislation would curtail production of the Air Force’s F-22 stealth fighter and provide billions for weapons procurement that would be spent from coast to coast.

Included is $375 million to begin building a helicopter carrier in the home district of Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), including electrical equipment built by Pennsylvania subcontractors; $275 million for five F-15 fighters to be built by Boeing Co. in the St. Louis area, represented by the House minority leader, Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.); and electronic equipment for missile defense systems built in Massachusetts.