Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

Bill funds arms, limits war money

WASHINGTON - House and Senate negotiators yesterday approved a $459 billion Pentagon appropriations bill that pays for weapons systems and annual military expenses but, at the insistence of Democrats, includes only a quarter of the $196 billion President Bush sought to continue fighting next year in Iraq and Afghanistan. Instead, the remaining $146 billion for combat operations will be in a second bill that includes language about troop withdrawals. Both measures are likely to head to the House floor this week.

    by By Walter Pincus, Washington Post, Inquirer
    Published 

WASHINGTON - House and Senate negotiators yesterday approved a $459 billion Pentagon appropriations bill that pays for weapons systems and annual military expenses but, at the insistence of Democrats, includes only a quarter of the $196 billion President Bush sought to continue fighting next year in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Instead, the remaining $146 billion for combat operations will be in a second bill that includes language about troop withdrawals. Both measures are likely to head to the House floor this week.

Saying the public wants the war to end, Rep. John P. Murtha (D., Pa.), chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, said: "We'll take it step by step."

The compromise bill includes $8.7 billion for the administration's missile-defense program, but lawmakers eliminated $85 million that would have paid for preparing missile interceptor sites in Poland and a targeting radar in the Czech Republic. The program has drawn strong objections from Russian President Vladimir V. Putin.

The House and Senate conferees halved money for developing the Reliable Replacement Warhead program, which aims to produce a new nuclear warhead by 2012. The $15 million appropriated is limited to design and cost-study activities, a move that ensures that the next president, and not Bush, will decide whether to seek congressional approval for the new nuclear weapon.

Lawmakers approved $11.6 billion to pay for Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles, which are being rushed to Iraq to better protect U.S. troops from improvised explosive devices.