Senate panel OKs 3.7 percent military pay raise

In almost lockstep cadence, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a $287.4 billion defense spending bill on Thursday that contains everything from super-bulldozers and bullets to a 3.7 percent pay raise for military personnel.

Just one day after the defense subcommittee had marked up the massive measure, the full committee in common accord raced through a similar session and sent the bill to the floor with nary a dissenting breath. The vote was 28-0.

Though it weighed in at $1 billion less than the House Appropriations Committee's version, it outweighed President Clinton's request for arms spending in fiscal year 2001 by $3.1 billion.

While Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, raised some questions about the long-range cost of some exotic new weapons-including the vaunted Joint Strike Fighter and a Navy amphibious ship that has suffered big cost overruns-he and other panel members were unapologetic about the size and shape of the bill.

Its cost, he said, reflects what he believes is years of neglect in modernizing America's military forces and changing the structure to meet the challenges of a post-Cold War environment in which peacekeeping and brushfire conflicts around the globe become the missions.

Stevens and Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, in particular, stressed the bill's call for the creation of lighter, faster and more lethal Army brigades to move quickly to trouble spots and quench the threats before they can spread. The bill contains $537 million to pay for the establishment of the first "light brigade" for the Army as a precursor, Stevens said, to "more deployable mobile forces . . . that move the Army into the 21st century."

As for airpower, the committee approved continuation of a program to "demonstrate and evaluate" the technical feasibility of the Joint Strike Fighter, a multiservice warplane that would be expected to command and dominate the skies in the first half of the new century. The plane would be outfitted with space-age sensors, weapons and controls that have yet to be developed, but that aviation experts believe are doable.

Until the plane is ready to fly and be thoroughly tested, however, Stevens insisted that production money not be authorized. Before it is put into mass production, he said, "We must get it right. This committee, as I see it, is on a track to make sure that we select the best aircraft at the best cost for the plane's mission."

Despite big cost overruns in the LPD-17 amphibious transport ship program, the committee continued to provide money for the first four ships in the class. To this point, a committee aide said, the projected cost of the ships is over budget by $285 million. The spending bill orders a construction pause for the ships to give the Navy and its contractors "time to complete the ship design and develop a credible construction plan that will control costs and maintain schedule." Until the $1.5 billion project gets straightened out, Stevens said, the committee will provide only $200 million in 2001 for continued construction, plus the $285 million to cover the overruns.

Here is a rundown of the major components of the Senate bill:

• Personnel: $75.8 billion. Of that sum, $22.2 billion goes to the Army, $17.8 billion to the Navy, $18.1 billion to the Air Force and $6.8 billion to the Marines. The various military reserve forces would get $10.8 billion. Included in the personnel account is a 3.7 percent pay raise for all military personnel, effective Jan. 1.
• Operations and Maintenance: $96.7 billion. This is an increase of $4.5 billion over fiscal year 2000 levels. It covers $4.1 billion for peacekeeping activities in Kosovo, Bosnia and Southwest Asia. It also contains $1.3 billion for environmental cleanup at military bases, including $10 million for a startup program to scrap scores of moldering ship hulks-some dating back to the Korean War era-that are mothballed in reserve fleets and leaking pollutants into surrounding waters on both coasts. The O&M budget also has $458 million to help Russia dismantle nuclear weapons and monitor enriched uranium cores in the bombs and missiles, as well as dispose of rotting Soviet nuclear submarines near Vladivostok.
• Procurement: $57.9 billion. Among a long list of big-ticket purchases is $2.8 billion to buy 42 new F-18E/F fighter planes; $2.7 billion to buy 3 Aegis-equipped DDG-51 class destroyers; $2.2 billion to buy 12 more C-17 cargo planes, and $460 million as the down payment on a new LHD-8 amphibious assault ship. The Navy did not ask for the LHD-8, but Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., insisted on its inclusion to sustain employment at the Litton Ingalls Shipbuilding yard in Mississippi.
• Research and Development: $39.6 billion. This account provides some $291 million for develop of anti-missile defenses, including $139 million to continue work on a controversial National Missile Defense system (NMD) intended to shoot down long-range ballistic missiles that might be launched against the United States. Advocates say the system is necessary to deter terrorist launches against the U.S. Critics say the ultimate cost is too great and the prospects of success so small that NMD is a waste of time and money. The R&D category also included $550 million to fund fully the Navy's new DD-21 development program to improve offshore bombardment accuracy and effect.
• Revolving and Management Funds: $4.2 billion. This transfers funding for C-17 purchases to a new National Defense Mobility Fund, controlled by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to more fairly allocate airlift capacity among the uniformed services during national emergencies.
• Defense Health Programs: $12.1 billion. In addition to money to bolster defense medical research, including breast and prostate cancers, this account adds $137 million for a new mail-order pharmacy benefit for military retirees, eligible for Medicare.
• Drug Interdiction: $993.7 million. This represents a $97.4 million increase over fiscal 2000 spending. It includes more money for interdiction operations in the Gulf State region, marijuana eradication programs, and air, land and sea surveillance and interdiction along known and suspected drug trafficking routes.