Senate committee votes to cut president's missile defense plan

From Dana Bash
CNN Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- By a party-line vote Friday, Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee cut the Bush administration's budget for missile defense spending next year by $1.3 billion. The vote was 13-12.

The administration had requested $8.3 billion for its missile defense program.

The cut is part of a $344 billion defense authorization bill approved Friday in a closed-door session of the Senate.

In addition to objections over cuts in missile defense, Republicans took issue with language offered by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Michigan, that would require the president to seek congressional approval before spending missile defense dollars on tests that violate the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty.

RESOURCES • Treaties in dispute   • Missile Defense Plan

"The ballistic missile defense provisions in this bill irresponsibly cut the program, tie the president's hands, and undercut his ability to craft a new strategic framework with Russia and others," said Sen. John Warner, R-Virginia, the ranking Republican on the committee.

Prior to the bill's passage, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned in a letter to Warner that he would recommend a veto of the entire bill should the money be cut and the restrictive language be approved.

"If such language were to become law, the U.S. would fall still further behind in countering the threats of long-range missiles. It would extend the time of deployment for a missile defense system even further into the future," he wrote.

"In addition, it would send a signal to the Russians and other countries that may prefer that the U.S. remain vulnerable to ballistic missiles that they can wait us out, while proliferation and offensive missile developments continue apace."

But Levin told reporters that congressional involvement must be maintained because the Bush administration has not been clear with Congress about whether it intends to back out of the ABM treaty or conduct testing that violates the pact.

"We are then being asked to vote in the dark. We're being asked to vote to give billions of dollars for missile defense. Some of that would be spent on activities which may or may not, they tell us, be in conflict with an arms control agreement," said Levin.

The $1.3 billion taken out of missile defense funding would be split up and spent on other Pentagon needs.

The Defense Authorization bill, which gives appropriators a blueprint for military spending, complied with Bush's request for an additional $18.4 billion for the military.

The committee also approved the administration's request for a new round of base closings in 2003, the first since 1995.

The full Senate is scheduled to take up the measure in two weeks, with committee Republicans vowing to lead the charge to kill it.