Congress Approves Bush Nuclear Weapons Funds
Date: 20-Nov-03
Country: USA
Author: Andrew Clark
The House of Representatives voted 387-36 to pass the funds as part of a $27.3 billion spending bill for energy and water programs in 2004. The Senate later unanimously followed suit, sending the bill to Bush to be signed into law.
Meanwhile, Republicans were negotiating with the White House to try to craft a catch-all measure grouping most of the remaining spending bills - which could then be cleared all at once before Congress is set to adjourn at the end of the week.
The energy spending bill would give Bush half of the $15 million he had sought to develop an earth-penetrating nuclear warhead for use against deeply buried bunkers.
It also has the full $6 million he wanted to research small, low-yield nuclear weapons - although $4 million of that would be contingent on a report to Congress detailing the administration's future plans for the U.S. nuclear stockpile.
Critics argue small nuclear weapons are dangerous because policy-makers may see them as a usable adjunct to conventional arms, heightening risks of nuclear escalation. And they say U.S. moves to develop them may force others to follow suit.
Congress is supposed to pass 13 spending bills to fund the federal government each fiscal year. So far only six have been sent to Bush and at least five more may now have to be wrapped up into a huge end-of-session "omnibus" package.
But the process is being dogged by disagreements over the controversial provisions that the must-pass spending measures always attract. This year, lawmakers defied veto threats to bar a relaxation of curbs on media ownership and block an administration effort to change overtime pay rules.
While no final decision has been made, Republican lawmakers and aides have said they expect the White House to eventually accept Congress' effort to force the Federal Communications Commission to reinstate a stricter limit on how many local stations U.S. television networks can own.
"The White House is just sticking up for their agency. They don't really care about it," said one aide.
But the overtime issue, which pits business groups against organized labor in a fight with heavy political implications, remains "a showstopper," said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bill Young, a Florida Republican.
The energy and water spending bill also contains $580 million for the controversial Yucca Mountain nuclear waste disposal project, $11 million less than Bush requested but far above a limit previously backed by the Senate.
The plan aims to site the first permanent U.S. nuclear waste repository in the desert northwest of Las Vegas and is bitterly opposed by the state of Nevada, whose senators have generally succeeded in capping its funding in past years.