Anti-Terror Bill Headed for Showdown

Republican senators will vote against $15 billion in additional anti-terrorism spending opposed by President Bush, even if it means blocking a wartime Pentagon spending bill, a top GOP lawmaker says.

Majority Democrats planned to push the $35 billion package through the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, with votes by the full Senate possible on Thursday. The measure, which exceeds the $20 billion Bush says is needed immediately, is for domestic security, defense and aid to New York and other areas hit by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. "We need to be prepared", said committee chairman Robert Byrd of West Virginia, chief author of the Democratic plan. "We can't wait until next March, April or May. Bin Laden won't wait", he said, referring to Osama bin Laden, whom U.S. officials blame for the airline crashes that destroyed the World Trade Center, damaged the Pentagon and killed thousands.

Byrd's package would add billions for food inspections, state and local preparation for bioterrorism attacks, border security, protection for airports and nuclear facilities, and aid to communities still recovering from the attacks. Byrd plans to add the spending to a widely popular $318 billion defense bill for the current fiscal year. A master of the Senate's parliamentary rules, Byrd has structured his proposal so that minority Republicans supporting Bush might have to block the entire defense package to kill the additional spending. Democrats are hoping that will be a difficult vote for GOP lawmakers to cast while U.S. troops are at war in Afghanistan.

Republicans will probably lack the majority votes needed to strip the extra spending from the bill. But they could probably force a halt to work on the bill, using Senate rules allowing just 41 senators to block legislation if the bill exceeds budget limits, as this one would.

Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, top Republican on the Appropriations panel, said he has told Byrd that Republicans will oppose exceeding Bush's anti-terror request unless Democrats agree to delay spending the money until the end of next year. Democrats say the funds are needed now. Stevens said more than 40 of the Senate's 49 Republicans have signed a letter saying they will oppose the extra spending. Many of them see the vote as a way to rally behind Bush's calls to control spending. "They're not going to vote for anything that goes beyond the president's number", Stevens told reporters.

In a mostly party-line vote last Thursday, the GOP-controlled House blocked Democrats from offering amendments that would have added $23 billion beyond Bush's request for defense, domestic security and New York.

In the week after the Sept. 11 attacks, Congress approved $40 billion in emergency anti-terrorism spending. Bush was given outright control of half that money; the remaining $20 billion must be approved in detail by lawmakers. Administration officials have said little of the initial money has actually been spent. They have said any request for more funds should wait until next year, and that Democrats should heed the agreement to spend $40 billion. But Democrats say the $40 billion was meant as only a beginning. And they say Bush agreed to spend half the $40 billion on New York and the other communities where the hijacked planes crashed Sept. 11. Under the House bill and Bush's proposals, those areas would get only about $11 billion. Byrd's proposal would raise those communities' share to $20 billion of the $40 billion, and provide the same $21 billion Bush wants for the military.

Among the other programs that would get more money are disease research, security at federal labs, state and local police and firefighters, the Postal Service, and efforts to prevent terrorists from getting Russian nuclear material.