HOUSE ADDS $4 BILLION TO PENTAGON BUDGET

WASHINGTON, March 29 -- The House tonight approved $4
billion in additional Pentagon spending for this year, as lawmakers
edged closer to approving a $12.6 billion overall package that would
also help Colombia combat drug trafficking and pay for military
operations in Kosovo.

Lawmakers voted, 289 to 130, for a bipartisan amendment to the larger
bill that replenishes $4 billion in spare parts, safety maintenance,
military health care and other accounts that have been spent faster
than expected because of heightened overseas operations.

"We are stretched very thin," said Representative Duncan Hunter, a
California Republican who supported the measure. The additional
Pentagon spending increased the overall House bill from $8.6 billion.

Earlier in the day, lawmakers had defeated an amendment to delay, and
possibly kill, about half of a $1.1 billion part of the bill to help
the Colombian military and its national police fight the drug trade.
The vote was 239 to 186 to kill the amendment, which was mainly
sponsored by Democrats.

The larger spending bill faces an uphill battle in the Senate, where
the majority leader, Trent Lott of Mississippi, has balked at moving a
separate emergency measure, arguing that it has become a magnet for
projects that are neither urgent nor emergencies. He wants to include
the most pressing aid into Congress's regular appropriations process.

But the bill's proponents on Capitol Hill and in the administration
say that approach would delay delivery of badly needed aid for months,
endangering Washington's commitment to prop up Colombia's democratic
government. The government is beset by rebels and traffickers.

"We can't ignore this issue," Speaker J. Dennis Hastert said in a
passionate speech on the House floor. "We can't ignore it in this
Congress. We can't ignore it in our street corners, and we can't
ignore it in the place where this stuff comes from."

House Republican leaders are trying to build enough support behind the
bill to force Mr. Lott to relent. By piling more military spending
into the bill, the move puts the majority leader in the difficult
position of reversing his opposition, angering fiscal conservatives in
his party, or blocking popular military spending.

Mr. Lott and other Republicans have regularly criticized President
Clinton for sending American forces on too many overseas missions,
jeopardizing morale and retention and undercutting the country's
war-fighting ability.