Senate OKs $11 billion spending bill after pork protest

Colombia aid, Kosovo peacekeeping included in measure

June 30, 2000
Web posted at: 6:31 p.m. EDT (2231 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A $1.3 billion anti-drug package for Colombia and $2 billion to pay for the Kosovo peacekeeping mission cleared the Senate on Friday, but not before protests over pork-barrel spending threatened to delay the chamber's holiday recess.

Those items were included in an $11.3 billion emergency defense spending bill that passed the House of Representatives on a 206-110 vote Thursday night. It also includes $1.3 billion for domestic disaster relief.

But two Republican senators, objecting to what they called pork-barrel spending and budgetary tricks in the bill, threatened to stall its progress with procedural measures early Friday afternoon -- when the Senate hoped to adjourn for the Independence Day holiday until July 10.

Sens. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, and John McCain, R-Arizona, agreed to allow consideration of the measure after Senate leaders agreed to zero-out funding for several members' pet projects in the next spending measure that comes to the floor.

Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona)

Colombia supplies four-fifths of the cocaine used in the United States and a large share of the heroin traded here. The aid package includes 60 helicopters, training for military and police anti-drug units and intelligence. President Clinton has said he will sign the bill, which he called "very, very important" in a speech in New Jersey on Friday.

Opposition came from both sides of the aisle, with many legislators fearing it could lead U.S. troops into the Latin American country's decades-old civil war between the government and left- and right-wing insurgencies. Others suggested the money would be better spent on drug treatment programs at home to reduce the demand that fuels the trade.

But Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-South Dakota, warned his colleagues that if the anti-drug measure did not pass, "We will lose Colombia."

Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-South Dakota) in the foreground, and Sen. Robert Byrd (D-West Virginia)

"It will be gone if we don't do something soon. We've got to act. We've got to commit resources," Daschle said Friday. "We've got to show leadership. We've got to continue the pressure and put the effort in place, or it's all gone."

Added Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Mississippi: "This is affecting us in America. This is not some distant place, this is not Kosovo."

The bill began as a $5.5 billion request from the White House. By the time it reached the Senate floor on Friday, it included election-year, home-state projects ranging from New York City's proposed Second Avenue subway to $206 million for road and bridge repairs. It also contained $45 million for a new executive jet for the commandant of the Coast Guard; $25 million for a firearms training facility in West Virginia and a $25 million community center in Ohio.

McCain called it "incredibly full of unnecessary, unwanted, unauthorized, unmitigated pork."

"We have $10 million for the Bering Sea crab disasters, $10 million for a Northeast fishery, seven for a Hawaii fishery and five for an Alaska sea life center," McCain said. "We've covered a good part of those senior members of the Appropriations Committee that have a coastline."

Gramm was just as harsh, complaining that the bill used accounting gimmicks to achieve its goals.

"The conference report before us, I'm unhappy to say, makes a mockery out of the budget," Gramm said. "In fact, if we adopt this conference report, I think that there is no need we should ever adopt another budget."

Gramm and McCain dropped their objections when party leaders agreed to remove the fiscal tricks -- $6.3 billion worth -- in a future bill. The Defense Department warned it might have to limit some operations as early as July if the measure was not approved before the recess.

Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Mississippi)

Lott defended the bill Friday, saying passage was needed to address major problems despite the additional items.

"I think there are a lot of things that have been added along the way that probably shouldn't have been, but the big issues were addressed in a responsible way," he said.

Missing from the measure was a proposal to ease the longstanding trade embargo on Cuba to allow shipments of food and medicine. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Illinois, facing opposition by Senate Democrats, removed that provision from the bill. Democrats had supported the idea, but said the bill as written added more restrictions than it removed.

In addition to the Colombia aid package, the $11.3 billion bill contained money to replenish Pentagon accounts depleted by the costs of participation in the KFOR peacekeeping effort in Kosovo; $4.4 billion for military fuel, health care and other defense programs; and $661 million to help New Mexico recover from the wildfires that scorched the state this spring.

Other major provisions of the bill include:

  •  $125 million for Patriot missile reliability;

  •  $192.5 million for Department of Energy needs, including cybersecurity;

  •  $700 million for the Coast Guard;

  •  $75 million for FAA operations;

  •  $20 million for NTSB funds spent on the Alaska Air and Egypt Air crash probes;

  •  $17.5 million to address "severe" fire hazards in the U.S. Capitol;

  •  $4.5 million for the D.C. police for the recent World Bank protests;

  •  $2 million for the Commission on International Religious Freedom

CNN.com writer Matt Smith and The Associated Press contributed to this report.