White House: No more FY99 supplementals for Kosovo

Administration officials believe enough money has been appropriated to fund the Kosovo peacekeeping operation through the end of the fiscal year and that they will not have to file another fiscal 1999 emergency spending request. Sources emphasized that the situation on the ground in Kosovo is in flux, and actual spending levels remain to be determined by Office of Management and Budget and Defense Department officials.

But administration officials are nevertheless focused on funding that will be required for the mission during FY2000, as indicated in a letter sent Thursday by President Clinton to the bipartisan congressional leadership. The letter, which emphasized that military readiness accounts will not be raided to pay for Kosovo, helped head off a GOP move to terminate Kosovo funding at the end of the current fiscal year.

The letter was delivered as the House struggled Thursday to resume consideration of appropriations bills and the Senate Appropriations Committee cleared a trio of spending bills. House Republicans Thursday agreed to cut funding for members' and House leadership offices and then quickly brought up the Legislative Branch appropriations bill.

But Thursday night, after winning over factions within their own conference, Republicans faced an onslaught of procedural motions to delay the bill by Appropriations ranking member David Obey, D-Wis., who argued several increases in the bill were unfair given that other government programs were facing cuts.

"This Congress has no right to be treated any better than any other branch of government," Obey thundered. Obey's tactics took the debate well into Thursday night.

On Kosovo funding, Clinton wrote, "To the extent that ongoing requirements exceed an amount that could be managed without harming military readiness, I will submit a further [FY2000] budget request in a timely manner."

Administration officials believe that the peacekeeping operation will not be more expensive than the now-completed air campaign, which was fully funded until the end of FY99 by the Kosovo supplemental spending measure passed earlier this year.

Administration officials believe that to finance operations beyond FY99, they can pad the FY2000 Defense Appropriations bill with the needed spending, as opposed to insisting on an FY2000 supplemental spending bill.

To that end, they are hopeful the Defense spending measure can be passed relatively quickly, so that funding will be available immediately on Oct. 1, when the current fiscal year ends.

In his letter, Clinton intentionally used the term "budget request," as opposed to "supplemental spending."

The letter was part of an attempt by White House officials Thursday to reassure members of Congress who were concerned that the administration might fund the peacekeeping operation by tapping "readiness" funds included in the Kosovo supplemental passed this year.

"I intend to fund these operations in a manner fully consistent with maintaining the high state of military readiness we require," Clinton wrote.

However, there is some dispute about what funds provided for in the Kosovo supplemental can be lumped in the "readiness" category.

Also, White House officials have been concerned with whether the emergency measure, which allots spending for an air campaign, could be applied equally to the peacekeeping operation.

Meanwhile, the appropriations situation remained tangled in the House.

Prior to Obey's moves to slow action, Republicans had reached a breakthrough Thursday when members agreed to cut spending in the Legislative Branch bill by $54 million in the form of a manager's amendment by Appropriations Committee Chairman Bill Young, R-Fla.

That amount was enough to satisfy fiscal conservatives like Rep. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who earlier forced GOP leaders to rethink their appropriations strategy and cut spending on Agriculture appropriations.

Republican leaders initially floated a smaller $30 million cut for the bill, but that amount was rejected by a group of conservatives.

Coburn, Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., and freshman Reps. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa. all met with Speaker Hastert Thursday afternoon to discuss the bill.

"The $54 [million cut] will pass it," said Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas. "The $30 [million cut] wouldn't pass." "They wouldn't have been able to pass it as a Republican bill," said a GOP aide. "They bettered it," said Sanford.

According to the Republican aide, GOP leaders were forced to reconsider in part because of term-limited freshman members like Toomey and DeMint who were loath to vote for increases in their office allowance.

Also Thursday, the Senate Appropriations Committee reported out the FY2000 Commerce-Justice-State, Military Construction and Legislative Branch bills. Except for pre-approved managers' amendments, the bills were not changed in committee.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said some savings from a reduction in contingency funds for Kosovo were moved from the $8.27 billion military construction bill to the "deficiencies" subcommittee, to be shifted to other FY2000 bills. The military construction bill is $176 million below FY99 spending and $2.8 billion more than Clinton requested.

The $1.68 billion Legislative Branch bill is $114 million less than current year spending, although Senate accounts will see a 3 percent increase over FY99. But Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Robert Bennett, R-Utah, said that is still below the 4.4 percent cost-of-living increase.

Finally, the $35.3 billion Commerce-Justice-State bill came in at $880 million under the FY99 amount. While Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., objected that the $1.7 billion in additional funds the administration requested for the census was not in the measure, it passed by voice vote.