Senate OKs $31.5-Billion Anti-Terrorism Package

The Senate gave strong approval early today to a counter-terrorism bill costing more than $31.5 billion, ignoring a White House veto threat and setting up a politically tinged showdown over the price tag for domestic security.

After four days of debate, senators approved the legislation by a vote of 71 to 22, despite objections by the Bush administration and many Republicans that it was too expensive. The post-midnight vote followed a testy final flurry in which a few dozen amendments were accepted but scores of others were dropped over the angry protests of several senators.

Passage came hours after President Bush announced his proposal to merge federal anti-terrorism efforts into a Cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security and declared that America was waging “a titanic struggle against terror.”

With that backdrop, Senate Republican leaders decided against dragging debate into next week on a package laden with funds for U.S. troops, airport safety and other popular initiatives. Instead, they will count on upcoming House-Senate negotiations on a final version to pare it or produce a bill that Bush would veto--just as this year’s campaigns for congressional control are ramping up.

“Clearly the bill has gotten out of control,” said Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), but “to just drag this out into next week would not be a positive thing.”

Bush proposed a $27.1-billion anti-terrorism package in March, and the House approved a $29-billion bill in May. The spending is for the remaining months of the federal budget year that ends Sept. 30.

Democrats chided GOP critics of the bill, which mostly contains funds for the military, FBI, efforts to thwart cyber- and bioterrorism, and other responses to the Sept. 11 attacks.

“Tell your people back home they don’t need this protection,” said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va). “Tell them, don’t tell us.”

Sens. Phil Gramm (R-Texas) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) unsuccessfully offered a series of amendments to underline their point that piggybacked onto the bill were pet projects and other items that were not dire emergencies. They also argued that the appropriations panel included projects that were scheduled for next year to ease a budget crunch expected then.

Even so, the Senate time and again refused to strip items from the legislation, underlining the Appropriations Committee’s power and Congress’ long tradition of attaching parochial items to must-pass bills.

By 65 to 31, the Senate refused to remove language providing $2.5 million for mapping Hawaiian coral reefs. Supporters of the funds said the provision steered money approved last year to an effort to protect endangered ocean life, but Gramm and McCain said the provision showed how some lawmakers were misusing the bill.

The Senate also rebuffed by 66 to 30 an effort to remove $2 million to help the Smithsonian Institution plan a storage facility for its animal specimens.

Working through a stack of amendments, senators voted 75 to 19 to forbid U.S. cooperation with the international war crimes tribunal, a permanent court that starts operations next month and has been opposed by the president. The House has approved a nearly identical ban.

The Senate boosted the bill’s cost a bit by voting 79 to 14 for a proposal by Sens. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) to double to $200 million the bill’s funds for fighting AIDS overseas. A Democratic effort to boost the total to $500 million was rejected.

Gramm also blocked inclusion of a bipartisan deal reached among some top senators that would have set a cap on next year’s spending and set procedures for enforcing that limit. The figure--which excludes benefits such as Social Security--was $768 billion, $9 billion more than Bush proposed and $29 billion higher than is to be spent this year.

Many lawmakers want such an agreement because bipartisan fights have blocked passage of a congressional budget this year that would limit spending. But Gramm and other conservatives want to hold out for a lower figure.

The anti-terrorism bill contains $5.5 billion to help New York’s recovery from the World Trade Center destruction, $200 million for Israel, $50 million for humanitarian aid to Palestinians and $100 million to fight AIDS in poor nations.