Steve Quayle News Alerts

June 6, 2002

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate voted Thursday to curtail debate on a $31.4 billion anti-terrorism bill, raising leaders' hopes of completing a measure this week that still faces a White House veto threat for being too expensive.

Even with the 87-10 roll call, Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Phil Gramm, R-Texas, began trying to strip individual items from the bill. Their first attempt failed by 66-30, as the Senate decided to keep $2 million in the bill for planning a new storage facility for the Smithsonian Institution's vast specimens collection, which is preserved in 730,000 gallons of flammable alcohol not far from the Capitol.

The two parties also continued accusing each other of playing politics with legislation designed to supply funds for the Pentagon, nuclear power plant safety and other security initiatives.

Given President Bush's complaints that the bill contains millions for senators' home states, "Is anybody shocked that Republicans are concerned about it, and are objecting to it," said Gramm.

But the chamber's majority Democrats say Republicans are out to delay this bill — and others — to deny accomplishments that Democrats can highlight during this fall's election campaigns.

"Instead of moving quickly on this ... bill, instead of fulfilling their responsibility to protect the American people, some senators would rather play politics," said Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., the Appropriations Committee chairman and the bill's chief author.

With federal deficits returning and the Bush administration saying the bill is too expensive, some Republicans had wanted to include overall spending limits for next year in the legislation. Bipartisan disputes have kept the Senate from passing a budget this year, leaving no brakes on potential federal expenditures.

But behind-the-scenes talks between top Democrats and Republicans — including the White House — have not yet produced an agreement on limiting spending or on procedures for enforcing such limits. Such processes, in place for more than a decade, expire Oct. 1.

"The budget process in Congress is hanging by a thread," said Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico, top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee.

Without an agreement, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said he was likely to move a separate bill soon that would increase the government's borrowing limit by about $450 billion.

The White House says the debt limit must be raised by late June or a federal default will occur. But Republicans want the language included in the anti-terrorism bill to avoid a separate vote on an issue many of them find politically awkward.

The bill also contains money for tougher immigration law enforcement, helping New York recover from the Sept. 11 attacks, and aid for Afghanistan.

The House approved a $29 billion package last month. The bills are for the remaining four months of the federal fiscal year.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washdc/2002/06/06/antiterror-bill.htm