The House passed a $13.1 billion emergency spending bill yesterday to pay for the air war in Yugoslavia, adding billions for spare parts, weapons and other military items beyond the Clinton administration's $6.5 billion request.
House Republican supporters of the spending -- which rose from $12.9 billion via amendments as the debate proceeded yesterday -- insisted that the added spending is necessary to address years of financial neglect that have left the military stretched dangerously thin by the Yugoslav war.
Although the House just last week refused in a tie vote to support the NATO air war, a sharp rebuke to Clinton's policy in Yugoslavia, Republicans said the spending increase is necessary to support troops now in the field and reinforce the military.
``To my colleagues who disagree with the president's policy, let me say simply, you had your vote last week,'' Hastert said. ``Now is the time to rise above the partisanship and vote for the good of the country.''
Majorities of both parties approved the package on a 311-to-105 vote. The extra spending includes $1.1 billion for missiles and bombs, $1.3 billion for spare parts, $1.8 billion for a military pay and retirement package, and $1.1 billion to modernize military bases in Europe and Asia.
San Francisco Representative Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat who supports the air war, also added an amendment to boost the initial $591 million humanitarian aid provision by $67 million.
Republicans readily accepted the Pelosi provision. Representative Sonny Callahan, an Alabama Republican and chairman of the foreign operations panel of the Appropriations Committee, admonished the administration for requesting far too little aid for the Kosovo refugees.
The administration ``felt like (the original request) would at least get them through June or July and then maybe they could come back then,'' Callahan said, praising Pelosi for adding the money now.
Democrats objected that Republicans were loading the bill up with military spending that should go through the normal budget process. ``We'll run out of targets before we run out of ammunition,'' said David Obey, the ranking Appropriations Committee Democrat, whose effort to pare down the bill to $11.6 billion failed 260 to 164.
But the concerns of both sides were tempered by worries that they might appear unsupportive of U.S. troops. Although the White House objects to the excess spending, it did not threaten a presidential veto, and the House soundly rejected an amendment that would have blocked the use of any of the bill's funds for a ground war without Congress' consent.
Emergency spending bills are not subject to the budget caps Congress and the administration agreed to in the 1997 Balanced Budget Agreement. The spending is not being offset by cuts elsewhere, and instead will be drawn from the budget surplus generated by Social Security payroll taxes.
An effort by Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn to offset the spending by an across-the-board cut in next year's discretionary spending failed overwhelmingly, 322 to 101.
``We will replenish that money to the Social Security trust fund,'' promised House Speaker Dennis Hastert. ``We cannot replenish the lives of our soldiers if we fail to provide adequate resources to them.'' Hastert insisted that ``every penny of Social Security money'' used for Kosovo ``will be credited to the Social Security trust fund.'' He did not outline any spending offsets or explain how money would be credited or explain how that would occur.
To avoid a divisive debate over the aims and methods of the Yugoslav war, the Senate chose to proceed directly to negotiations Tuesday with the House rather than vote on its own bill. The Senate is expected to push for a $9 billion bill midway between the House and the administration versions.
The Senate is also expected to add in $2 billion or more in aid to Midwest farmers, the steel, oil and mining industries, and the hurricane-struck nations of Central America.
