A potentially lengthy Senate floor fight over the Military Construction/supplemental appropriations conference report was averted at the last minute Friday and the $20 billion package--$8.8 billion for the fiscal 2001 Military Construction appropriations bill and $11.2 billion for the fiscal 2000 emergency supplemental--was adopted by voice vote.
Earlier in the day, the Senate wrapped up its weeklong debate on the FY2001 Labor-HHS spending bill by passing the measure 52-43. The conference report, which the House adopted Thursday night, drew heated criticism from Senate Banking Committee Chairman Phil Gramm, R-Texas, and Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., both of whom threatened to slow passage of the bill.
Gramm was particularly angered by language to allow $4.3 billion in veterans and Supplemental Security Income benefit payments to be shifted back into FY2000, and a provision to move $2 billion in outlays from defense to non-defense discretionary accounts.
A senior member of the Budget Committee, Gramm declared: "If we pass this conference report, it will make a mockery of the budget resolution. It violates every tenet of the budget that we adopted," which called for the pay date shifts to be eliminated and reinstated for FY2001 the firewall between defense and non-defense appropriations.
McCain railed against what he called "unjustified, unauthorized, unmitigated pork" in the supplemental portion. In remarks this morning to reporters, Lott conceded "there were things added along the way [to the supplemental] that were unnecessary," but added that he and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., were "pleased" to have kept the total cost under $12 billion.
Under an agreement worked out during quorum calls with Lott, Gramm, McCain and Budget Committee Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, pledged to rescind the three provisions to which Gramm and McCain had objected in "the next available vehicle" his committee marks up after returning from the Independence Day recess.
McCain, although still disgruntled, called the deal a "reasonable compromise" that he would support because it would result in $6 billion in budgetary savings.
President Clinton late Thursday indicated his support for the emergency spending measure. "While it contains certain flaws, in total, this bill will make our nation safer and more secure by meeting essential and long overdue needs at home and abroad," Clinton said in a written statement.
NEXT STORY: All census forms collected ahead of schedule