Posted on 06/19/2002 10:14:09 PM PDT by JohnHuang2
WASHINGTON, June 19 — The Senate left the door open today for some form of an artillery system the Pentagon wants to kill, shifting $475 million budgeted for the weapon, the Crusader, into research for future combat systems.
Despite a veto threat, senators also agreed to allow disabled military retirees to collect both disability and retirement pay, which the Bush administration opposes on the ground that it is too expensive.
Opening debate on a $393 billion Pentagon spending measure, senators reached for the middle ground between the administration, which wants to cancel the $11 billion Crusader outright, and House members who last month defied Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and kept money for the mobile cannon in their bill.
Under an amendment by Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan and chairman of the Armed Services Committee, the Army would be allowed to finish an analysis of its artillery needs and alternatives that was in progress when the cancellation of the Crusader was announced in May.
Mr. Levin said his objective "is not to preserve a program, it is simply intended to ensure a reasonable analysis of potentially life and death issues." His amendment was approved 96 to 3 after Senator John W. Warner of Virginia, the senior Republican on the Armed Services Committee, added language sought by the White House that would make it harder for Congress to block the program's termination.
Some lawmakers contend that the Army is badly lagging in artillery capability and that some modified version of the 40-ton Crusader, which Mr. Rumsfeld deemed outsized for a new era of rapid deployment, could be the answer.
Lawmakers from Oklahoma, where the contractor United Defense Industries Inc., was building the weapon, backed today's compromise.
"If Crusader is not fully funded following further study, the funds can then be directed to an alternative system that would meet the Army's needs and still be fielded by 2008," said Senator James M. Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma.
Other senators are eager to see the demise of the Crusader, saying it was designed to fight a more conventional war than the conflicts the Pentagon now anticipates. "Cold-war era dinosaurs such as the Crusader should be terminated," said Senator Russell D. Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin.
The defense bill represents the largest increase in military spending in almost four decades, finances a variety of procurement, research and personnel programs and would raise pay by 4.1 percent for military personnel.
On a voice vote, the Senate added the disability provision, saying it was unjust to cut retirement pay by the amounts paid for disabilities. The House measure would limit such concurrent pay to those judged to be 60 percent or more disabled, and the administration is opposed to that plan as well. The Senate approach would cost an estimated $20 billion over five years, aides said.
A chief battle over the measure, which is to remain on the Senate floor until next week, could involve the provision that cuts spending on the administration's missile defense system by $812 million to $6.8 billion.
"I would not be surprised if there was an attempt to restore all the funding," said Senator Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island, a supporter of the cuts.
Under the Senate bill, $690 million of the reduction would be diverted to buying submarines, dock landing ships and destroyers. Other money would be used to bolster defense at the Department of Energy's domestic nuclear facilities.
The administration demanded today that the money be put back in and said a veto would be recommended to President Bush if the Senate missile defense approach were adopted.
Mr. Reed said the money was coming partly from programs where the administration has not spent the money it now has or from aspects of missile defense that are years from development.
"We made careful, well-justified reductions in the missile defense program to fund shipbuilding in the uniform Navy," Mr. Levin said.
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