House Democrats demand more funding for homeland security

As House and Senate appropriators position themselves to conference the $317 billion fiscal 2002 Defense spending bill and the attached $20 billion anti-terrorism supplemental, House Democrats are still leading the charge to add more supplemental money for homeland security, even as the administration pressures negotiators to give the Pentagon every dollar it requested.

In a letter sent to Senate leaders Friday, as the chamber was debating the bill, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called on the Senate "to fully fund the $7.3 billion DoD request [for the supplemental] and to maintain the President's priorities for fighting this war. If full funding is not approved, we will have to curtail operations and training [and] … would send the wrong signal to our armed forces and our adversaries. We urge the Senate to give full support to the President's defense emergency supplemental request--in final floor action and in conference with the House."

After last week rejecting a move by Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd, D-W.Va, to put an extra $15 billion in the supplemental for homeland security and New York, the Senate ultimately passed a supplemental containing $2 billion for defense, $9.5 billion for aid to New York and other domestic recovery needs, and $8.5 billion for homeland security.

In contrast, the House-passed supplemental consists of $7.2 billion for defense, $7.4 billion for New York and $5.4 billion for homeland security.

A spokesman for House Appropriations ranking member David Obey, D-Wis., who earlier failed to add $6.5 billion in extra homeland security funds to the supplemental, said Democrats plan to continue the fight in conference.

"We will look into any way we can to force their hand on homeland defense … This fight is far from over," Obey's spokesman said. As for Rumsfeld's letter, he said, "Our position is that we would like to fund them both"--the full amount for Defense, plus more for homeland security.

In the Senate, where Byrd forced Republicans to employ three separate procedural votes to demonstrate their refusal to go beyond $20 billion for the supplemental, his spokesman said Byrd does not plan to renew that battle in conference--although he will fight for the Senate's more generous homeland security number, which comes directly out of Defense.

"Sen. Byrd at this point is insisting on the Senate position," his spokesman said.

As for Appropriations ranking member Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, his overriding concern appears to be retaining Senate language providing for the leasing of Boeing 767s to serve as air refueling tankers for planes flying missions in the war on terrorism.

In trying to broker a compromise on the supplemental last week, Stevens proposed a version of the $20 billion title that would have given the administration the full $7.3 billion it requested for Defense, but carved out $2.3 billion for bioterrorism--effectively providing $5 billion for regular military accounts.