Congress OKs $79-Billion War Spending Measure

The House on Saturday approved $79 billion for the war in Iraq, foreign aid, homeland security and an airline industry bailout, sending President Bush a bill stripped of many unrelated projects critics had attacked as pork-barrel spending.

Gone from the final measure were Senate-written provisions to boost the dairy industry in California, fund a dam in Connecticut, compensate Rhode Island authorities for a deadly nightclub fire and even set rules for ginseng labeling.

What remained was a massive bill focused, with few exceptions, on goals Bush had proposed when he sent Congress a $74.7-billion emergency spending request March 25: supporting military operations in Iraq, aiding allies in the global campaign against terrorism and bolstering domestic security.

The legislation provides money the administration said was needed through the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30.

The House approved the final bill on a voice vote, one day after the Senate had done so. With the spending bill completed, Congress began a two-week spring recess. Bush is expected to sign the bill within days.

“The world is witnessing the liberation of Iraq and the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Iraqi people as a new day begins in their country,” the president said in a statement Saturday. “This legislation includes the resources necessary to win the war and help secure enduring freedom and democracy for the Iraqi people.”

Saturday’s action followed days of strenuous negotiations between the two Republican-led chambers. House leaders jeered the Senate for attempting to hitch what they called “extraneous” riders onto the bill.

“We have people in this town that just cannot stop their appetite for spending money,” said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas). “What does ginseng labeling have to do with fighting the war in Iraq?”

House Appropriations Chairman C.W. “Bill” Young (R-Fla.) said the legislation would send “a strong message” to U.S. troops: “Your country loves you and respects you and appreciates you.”

The bulk of the money in the bill -- $62.4 billion -- would be spent on military personnel, operations, rearmament and other war-related expenses. Congress rejected Bush’s proposal to give his war leadership nearly $60 billion of that sum without strings attached.

Instead, lawmakers approved a $15.7-billion “Iraq Freedom Fund” for the military’s discretionary use but required the Pentagon to notify Congress five days before any of it is dispensed.

The bill also includes $2.5 billion for food, medicine and reconstruction in Iraq. Bush won the authority to give the Department of Defense a role in dispersing a portion of the funds. Some lawmakers had argued that all of the money should be earmarked for the State Department.

Another of the bill’s provisions would require a new review of recent sexual assault allegations at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo.

The bill also provides $2.9 billion to help the sagging U.S. airline industry -- on top of $15 billion previously approved after the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon. In a victory for Democrats, airline workers would be eligible for a half-year extension of unemployment benefits.

One Democrat ridiculed the industry’s requests for help.

“The airline industry is composed of ‘let’s pretend’ capitalists,” said Rep. David R. Obey of Wisconsin, top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee. “Every couple of years they come to Congress for another bailout.”

The airline package, negotiated by congressional Republicans, had not been requested by the president. Administration officials initially attacked the package as too large. It was slightly reduced, and Bush decided to accept it.

For homeland security, the bill would allocate $3.9 billion, much of which would go to state and local police and fire authorities to help them deter and respond to terrorist attacks. For public health, $16 million would be spent on studies of the new worldwide medical threat severe acute respiratory syndrome, $100 million would be spent for smallpox vaccinations and $42 million for compensating those made ill by the vaccinations.

For foreign aid, the bill would provide $7.5 billion, including $1.1 billion for Jordan; $300 million for Egypt; $1 billion for Israel; $30 million for the Philippines; $337 million for Afghanistan; and up to $1 billion for Turkey. The Turkish aid is conditioned on that country’s cooperation with the Iraq war effort.

The House was forced to accept a handful of unrelated items in order to strike a deal with the Senate. Included in the bill were $110 million for provisions relating to, among other things, catfish farmers, seafood labeling, Forest Service grazing and an Ojibwa Indian school in North Dakota. There was also $3 million for what House aides said was an item related to Irish music.