House approves $13 billion emergency spending bill

The House Thursday passed, on a 263-146 vote, the $13 billion fiscal 2000 emergency supplemental spending package to appropriate funds for drug interdiction in Colombia, peacekeeping in Kosovo, and relief to farmers and other victims of Hurricane Floyd, among other items. Despite continued resistance to bringing up a stand-alone supplemental by Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, intends to mark up a smaller supplemental of roughly $9 billion next Tuesday.

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., Thursday called for prompt Senate passage of the fiscal 2000 supplemental appropriations bill, citing a forcefully worded letter for funding for U.S. military operations in Kosovo he received recently from Defense Secretary William Cohen.

Cohen wrote that failure to pass the measure quickly would force the armed services to make an "irreversible decision to curtail planned spending in order to cover must-pay Kosovo costs. This would substantially damage force readiness, capabilities and troop morale." Asked what he thought the odds were that an fiscal 2001 budget resolution would be approved, Daschle said he believed there was "no better than a 50-50" chance that would occur.

Meanwhile, the Senate Budget Committee Thursday wrapped up a marathon markup by passing, on a 12-10 party line vote, Chairman Pete Domenici's (R-N.M.) $1.8 trillion fiscal 2001 budget resolution. The Democratic alternative presented by ranking member Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., was rejected by the same margin. Reflecting the deal struck with House Budget Chairman John Kasich, R-Ohio, the Senate plan provides $596.5 billion for total fiscal 2001 discretionary spending-almost $307 billion for defense and $290 billion for non-defense spending. It includes a minimum of $150 billion over five years for tax cuts under reconciliation protection, with a provision making any additional on-budget surplus funds by which the Congressional Budget Office may increase its current projections available for either tax cuts or debt reduction.