Congress approves defense bill Military pay raise, base closings among provisions of new legislation

WASHINGTON – Overcoming objections to base closings, Congress gave final approval Thursday to a $343 billion defense authorization bill. It includes the largest military pay raise in two decades, an increase in anti-terrorism money and full funding of President Bush’s missile defense efforts.

The vote in the House was 382-40, followed several hours later by a 96-2 vote in the Senate. Maine Reps. Tom Allen and John Baldacci, both Democrats, voted against the bill, while Republican Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins voted for it.

The measure now goes to Bush for his signature. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who threatened to recommend a veto if the bill did not include a base-closing round in 2003, would not say whether the 2005 round in the legislation would allay that threat.

The defense legislation authorizes spending by the Defense Department and military efforts of the Energy Department for the budget year that began Oct. 1. It contains a $33 billion increase, or 10.6 percent, over 2001 spending.

Also Thursday, the Senate unanimously passed the intelligence authorization bill by a voice vote and sent it to the White House. It places new emphasis on human spy networks and calls for an increase of about 8 percent in spending. The actual spending on intelligence, generally not made public, has been estimated at about $30 billion for the past few years.

The defense measure offers service members a minimum 5 percent across-the-board pay raises – 10 percent increases in some cases – effective Jan. 1. “The most generous pay raise in 20 years” was the assessment of Rep. Bob Stump, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

The bill provides more help with moving expenses and a major boost in construction spending, including improvements to family housing.

“Halfway around the globe, thousands of sons and daughters are engaged in a noble cause against the forces of evil and intolerance,” said Stump, R-Ariz. “Our job is to support them, provide them the necessary resources and tools to successfully accomplish this task and ensure that they are safely returned to their families.”

At the same time, the bill “has something in it to disappoint virtually everyone involved,” Stump said. Opposition from Stump and others to base closings delayed passage for a month.

The agreement to one round of base closings in 2005, two years after the administration wanted one, was the compromise he proposed to get the legislation through.

The bill also restores much of the money slashed earlier by the House Appropriations Committee for the next generation Navy destroyer, the DD-X series of ships to be built by Bath Iron Works in Maine. It includes $539 million in research and development money, which is $80 million shy of the Defense Department request, for the so-called DD-X program.

The House Appropriations Committee voted in October to cut funding for the DD-21 program by 75 percent. The Navy later overhauled the program and renamed it the DD-X.

Rep. Allen of Maine said Thursday night he voted against the bill even though he likes many elements of it because it was the only way for him to register his disapproval of the base closure provisions.

“It’s not the right time. It’s not the right process,” he said.

Four earlier base-closing rounds shut down 451 bases, including Loring Air Force Base in Limestone.

The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on the Maine-New Hampshire border, which narrowly escaped closure, could be considered for closure, along with the Brunswick Naval Air Station.

Rumsfeld pushed hard for a base-closing round in 2003. It could save $3 billion or more a year for essential military activities, Rumsfeld had said, adding that he would recommend Bush veto the bill unless that was included.

Asked about the status of the veto threat, Rumsfeld said Thursday at a Pentagon news conference, “I’m going to have to sleep on that.”

The delay would mean that the nation would retain as many as one-quarter more bases than it needs, he said. That, in turn, would divert dollars and military personnel from accomplishing “something truly important with respect to the war on terrorism, and it’s a shame,” Rumsfeld said.

Many lawmakers were skeptical about the savings and they opposed shutdowns while the nation is both at war and mired in an economic slump.

A nine-member commission appointed by the president, in consultation with Congress, would review the defense secretary’s list of facilities to be closed.

The president could approve the commission’s list and send it to Congress, or return it to the panel. Neither Congress nor the president could make changes to the list.

On missile defense research and development, Bush would get his full $8.3 billion request, a $3.1 billion increase over 2001. Thursday was also the day Bush notified Russia that the United States was pulling out of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty because it would impede progress on the program.

Of the $8.3 billion, Bush could use $1.3 billion for anti-terrorism efforts instead if he wants.

The defense bill includes another $7 billion for anti-terrorism spending, a $1 billion increase from 2001.

As the administration requested, the negotiators canceled the January referendum in Vieques on future use of that Puerto Rican island for military training. Bush has promised to end the maneuvers by 2003.

The two votes in the Senate against the bill came from Democrat Robert Byrd of West Virginia and Republican John McCain of Arizona. Sens. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., did not vote.