Mixed Success for Retaliation Efforts in Congress

Both houses of Congress approved bills Thursday to spend nearly $80 billion on the U.S.-led war against Iraq and related expenses, but the House added to its version a measure meant to punish France, Germany, Russia and Syria for opposing the coalition to topple Saddam Hussein.

While the House action on that measure threatens to roil already turbulent diplomatic waters, the representatives easily defeated another proposal to deny Turkey $1 billion in aid in response to that country’s refusal to let U.S. troops move through its territory to invade northern Iraq.

Most of the money in both the House and the Senate measures would pay for the military operations, aid to allies and anti-terrorism initiatives through Sept. 30, the end of the U.S. government’s current fiscal year. The measures also call for more than $3 billion to aid the ailing U.S. airline industry.

The Senate approved its package, 93 to 0. The House vote was 414 to 12. California Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, both Democrats, voted for the Senate bill. Of the 12 votes against the House bill, four came from California: Reps. Sam Farr (D-Carmel), Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles) and Lynn C. Woolsey (D-Petaluma). Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Mission Hills) did not vote.

While differences in the bills must be reconciled by House and Senate negotiators, a final bill is expected to clear Congress by the end of next week. President Bush had requested a $74.7-billion package, but he is expected to sign legislation for a larger amount.

The House added to the difficulty of the forthcoming negotiations when it approved, on a voice vote, a measure from Rep. George R. Nethercutt Jr. (R-Wash.) to bar French, German, Russian and Syrian businesses from receiving U.S.-funded contracts to help rebuild a postwar Iraq.

The language of the measure defines those businesses as entities “organized under the laws” of those four countries. Advocates said the wording would not jeopardize American jobs for multinational companies that have bases in the target countries. Critics, however, said that U.S. workers could lose out.

But the trade implications of the measure were overshadowed by the passions of the lawmakers who took umbrage at those countries -- chiefly France -- that had opposed Bush administration policy when the United Nations was considering the U.S.-Iraq crisis.

Rep. Mark E. Souder (R-Ind.), recalling the U.S. soldiers who died on D-Day in 1944 to help liberate France from Nazi Germany, said: “The people in Normandy said they would never forget. But clearly the people in Paris forgot.” Souder said French President Jacques Chirac and his allies had “blood on their hands” for giving “aid and comfort” to the Iraqi president.

When a Democrat suggested that the House remember that France had helped the United States win independence from Britain, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) shot back: “There’s no question in my mind whose side in this conflict [the Marquis de] Lafayette would be fighting for -- the liberation of the Iraqi people.”

Several leading Republicans and Democrats opposed the measure, saying it would hinder the Bush administration’s efforts to heal rifts with European allies. But the measure had such momentum that it sped through the House without a recorded vote.

Whether the measure will survive in the bill’s final draft is unclear. The House position is at odds with those of the Senate and the Bush administration.

In the Senate, a measure seeking to bar French and German companies from receiving U.S.-funded contracts for reconstruction in postwar Iraq was withdrawn after its sponsor, Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.), received a call and a letter from administration officials. The amendment would have prohibited any payments connected with these contracts to citizens of France or Germany.

Administration officials warned that such a reprisal would undermine efforts to build international financial support for the reconstruction.

House members vented against Turkey, but defeated, 315 to 110, a measure to strip the bill of $1 billion in Turkish aid.

“What they did is causing American lives to be lost,” said Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-San Diego), who led the unsuccessful effort to cut the funding. “There needs to be a message sent, and a penalty.”

Even those opposed to Cunningham conceded he had a point.

“Our friends in Turkey need to hear this discussion,” said House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.). “We have been disappointed in their actions in recent days.”

Still, Blunt joined with a chorus of Democrats and Republicans in arguing that it would be short-sighted for the United States to abandon a NATO ally that has for decades aided American troops in ways large and small.

“This is one of those tough votes where we as members have an obligation to not let our emotions run away from us,” said Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.). “Turkey has been an ally of ours for the last half century -- in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Bosnia -- and very helpful in the war against terrorism.”

The Bush administration called the aid “in the U.S. interest, not a favor to Turkey.”

The Republican-controlled chambers ignored the administration’s complaints that the more than $3 billion in aid to the airline industry was excessive.

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), whose state is home to United Airlines, called the aid necessary to help the industry through a “tough time.” While the White House can “second-guess,” he added, the administration did not come up with a figure of its own.

The Senate measure would provide $3.5 billion in aid for airlines, airports and laid-off airline workers. The House bill would provide $3.2 billion for the carriers. The new aid would come on top of a $15-billion rescue package approved shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The measures -- which would cap the salaries of airline executives at 2002 fiscal year levels if their airlines accept aid -- came before Congress as Delta Air Lines Chairman Leo Mullin announced that he was slashing his compensation by $9.1 million. The cut includes a 25% reduction in his base salary this year, to $596,250, and rescinded stock-based awards.

The House and Senate actions gave lawmakers a chance to voice, en masse, their support for U.S. troops and their revulsion for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

“We’re in the middle of a war,” said Rep. Norman D. Dicks (D-Wash.). “We’ve got these troops in the field and they need to have the resources in order to complete this task and get this job done.”

At least one antiwar lawmaker objected to the funding. Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio) argued that Congress should cut off money for the war and force President Bush to withdraw U.S. forces.

“This war is killing our troops,” said Kucinich, who is exploring a long-shot run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004. “It’s killing innocent Iraqi civilians. This war must end now.”

Looking ahead to the days after the war, the measures provide about $2.5 billion for humanitarian relief and postwar reconstruction. The Senate measure includes $10 million to establish a tribunal “for the prosecution of Saddam Hussein and other Iraqi war criminals” and includes $18 million to reopen the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

Both bills provide aid to about two dozen allies in the war against Iraq and the broader war against terrorism, including Israel, Jordan, Pakistan and the Philippines.

Both measures also provide more than $4 billion for homeland defense, an amount Democrats called inadequate.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said the measure “does not fulfill America’s commitment to our men and women in uniform at home -- our local firefighters, police and emergency medical personnel.”

Responding to similar complaints from Democrats in the Senate, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, accused some of his colleagues of seeking to make an issue of homeland defense spending for “political purposes.”

Senators added $105 million to their version of the bill for administering smallpox and other vaccines to more than 1 million police, firefighters and health workers. The Senate also added $155 million for the Department of Veterans Affairs for health care for military personnel returning from Iraq.

At Feinstein’s urging, senators added $219 million to the bill to help “first responders” -- police, firefighters and medical personnel -- obtain compatible communication systems. In Los Angeles, City Councilman Jack Weiss said Feinstein’s amendment “patches one of the key holes in Los Angeles’ homeland security. Today, police and firefighters can’t speak with one another while responding to an incident.”

It is unclear whether the provision will remain in the final bill because it is not currently in the House measure.

Both measures include $16 million to research severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS.

In the Senate, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) lost an effort to cut funding for measures that he argued were unrelated to the war effort, including $98 million to complete the Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service research facility in Ames, Iowa, and $500,000 to control sea lampreys in Lake Champlain.

McCain called it “an embarrassment ... when we are supposed to be funding a war” to stuff “pork-barrel projects” in the spending measure.

But Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) defended the animal research center as a “national facility, not an Iowa facility,” important in the event of outbreaks of animal disease.

The united front that legislators displayed on the dollar amounts sought by the president for the Pentagon did not extend to the White House’s request for more leeway in deciding how funds are spent.

Democratic and Republican lawmakers balked at providing what they called a blank check, saying the administration’s request infringed on the congressional power of the purse.

Experts acknowledged that the price tag for the war and its aftermath is certain to grow, aggravating budget battles over the budget deficit and the president’s proposed tax cut.

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Times staff writers Matea Gold and James Peltz in Los Angeles contributed to this report.