House and Senate negotiators agreed yesterday to shift nearly $4 billion that President Bush wanted for military spending to pay instead for homeland security and efforts to help communities, including those in the Washington area, recover from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The compromise $20 billion anti-terrorism package resulted from an intense struggle between the White House and congressional Democrats over how much should be spent on domestic anti-terrorism activities.
Earlier, Bush fended off efforts by Democrats in both houses to add $15 billion more to the anti-terrorism package, which would have forced the president to back off the spending ceilings he had set for the year.
As a result, Democrats were forced to focus their efforts on shuffling money within the $20 billion, and here they did better getting funding for homeland security. In dividing up the $20 billion, Democrats succeeded in cutting Bush's defense spending request to $3.5 billion from $7.3 billion. The remaining $16.5 billion was split roughly evenly between security precautions, including bioterrorism programs, and payments to New York and Washington, the targets of the September attacks.
Bush had requested $4.4 billion for domestic security and $6.3 billion for the affected communities, contending that this was all that could be spent before he submits proposals of his own next year. Democrats had argued it was risky to shortchange anti-terrorism efforts in light of continuing dangers.
Even though the Pentagon didn't get all it wanted, it received a $42 billion increase, the largest one-year increase in more than two decades, according to Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.).
"This package is a compromise," Byrd said. "It does not provide all of the funding that is needed for homeland defense, local recovery initiatives or the military effort. At the same time, it does not shortchange any of these priorities. It takes solid steps toward accomplishing all of these goals."
The Pentagon is likely to get further appropriations from Congress, as needed, to fight the war in Afghanistan, lawmakers have said.
Approval of the anti-terrorism package and the $318 billion defense appropriations bill for this year, to which it was attached, appears to clear the way for final action on spending bills for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. Also nearing final approval are spending bills for foreign aid and for health, education and other social programs. Congressional leaders are scheduling all three bills for House and Senate votes later this week, hoping to wind up the 2001 session by this weekend.
The defense spending measure includes a pay raise of at least 5 percent for military personnel.




Washington Post reporter Steve Vogel covers local and regional military issues. His Military Matters column runs every other week.