Democrats Delay Bid to Limit ABM Tests

Signaling how last week’s terrorist attacks have reshaped the political debate in Congress, Senate Democratic leaders have decided to back down--at least temporarily--from a proposal designed to make it harder for President Bush to develop a national missile defense system.

A top Democratic aide said the Senate will drop from the annual defense authorization bill--set for consideration later this week--a provision that would block any anti-missile test that violated the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, unless Congress specifically voted to allow it.

That provision had been vehemently opposed by Republicans, who said it would hamper the president’s push to develop a missile defense system. Dropping the provision would eliminate the most divisive aspect of the authorization bill.

Anita Dunn, spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), said he had decided, in consultation with Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.), to drop the provision in order to avoid a high-profile fight with Bush at a time when the two political parties are trying to display bipartisanship in a response to the terrorist assaults.

Dunn said Democrats still had reservations about the proposed missile defense system, but decided to postpone the fight on it.

“There will be an appropriate time for the debate . . . but given the circumstances, we decided to defer that piece of the debate,” Dunn said. “Both as a matter of policy and politics, nobody wants to have this argument now at a time of national crisis.”

Even if the provision had been left in the bill, it would have faced an uphill fight. A close vote on it was expected in the Senate and the provision was not included in the House version of the bill. Also, Bush had threatened to veto the bill if the restriction was included in the version sent to the White House.

“It was never clear this language would survive at the end of the process,” said John Isaacs, a missile defense opponent who is president of the Council for a Livable World, an arms control advocacy group.