The Senate Thursday narrowly defeated an effort to cut $10.5 billion in highway funding from the Senate budget resolution on a tough vote that forced senators to decide between highways and veterans.
But a parliamentary trick by Senate leaders gave senators an easy vote to cite for veterans back home, while keeping the highway spending.
During those votes, several senators on the floor appeared confused about the amendment situation. But Senate leaders assured the rank-and-file to go along with their plan.
The Senate budget resolution pays for the additional $26 billion in contract authority added for highways to the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act with a series of offsets totaling $18.5 billion in outlays. The largest offset comes from saving $10.5 billion by reversing a decision two years ago by the Veterans' Affairs Department to consider smoking a disability, meaning veterans could begin collecting benefits for any illness or disability caused by smoking.
President Clinton has proposed to overturn that decision in his past two budget proposals. This year, he used the $10.5 billion in "savings" for his other budget priorities. Senate Budget Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., in his budget resolution, took that same offset, and instead directed it toward paying for the new highway funding added to ISTEA.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., called that tactic "a midnight raid by the administration and the budget people" against veterans. He said the government is responsible for "creating a culture [in the military] that encouraged smoking [by young soldiers] at every opportunity."
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who is up for re-election this year, and Rockefeller proposed an amendment to delete the ISTEA offset, meaning the VA could go ahead with the payout of benefits for smoking illnesses.
As an alternative, Domenici proposed a second-degree substitute amendment calling for the GAO and the CBO to study the costs of the smoking benefit for veterans.
Rockefeller then proposed a perfecting amendment with nearly the same language contained in his first amendment. That allowed all senators to vote, 98-0, for the Rockefeller language that would give the smoking benefit to veterans.
But then, in a cliffhanger vote during which several senators crossed party lines, the Senate approved the Domenici substitute amendment containing the study, but which also eliminated the veterans' benefit they all voted for five minutes earlier. That vote was 52-46.
The end result is that the budget resolution still calls for the $10.5 billion offset to go to ISTEA, the smoking benefit for veterans to be eliminated, and all senators are on record as voting for veterans.
But the veterans' offset issue could still come up during the ISTEA conference committee. The House ISTEA bill contains a sense of the Congress provision that no changes should be made to veterans' programs.
Meanwhile, House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Shuster and ranking member James Oberstar, D-Minn., appointed their conferees to the ISTEA conference committee.
The Republicans are Shuster and Reps. Don Young of Alaska, Thomas Petri of Wisconsin, Sherwood Boehlert of New York, Jay Kim and Steve Horn of California, Tillie Fowler of Florida, Richard Baker of Louisiana, Robert Ney of Ohio, and Jack Metcalf of Washington.
The Democrats are Oberstar and Reps. Nick Rahall and Robert Wise of West Virginia, Robert Borski of Pennsylvania, William Lipinski of Illinois, James Clyburn of South Carolina, Bob Filner of California, and James McGovern of Massachusetts.
Conferees from other House committees have not been chosen. All members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee are expected to be named conferees, along with representatives from the Commerce, Finance, and Banking panels.
House and Senate staff are expected to begin preliminary meetings on ISTEA early next week, and Shuster is expected to stay in Washington during the recess to prepare for the conference.
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