GOP WANTS TO REVIVE STALLED SPENDING PACKAGE, MEASURE WOULD FINANCE
KOSOVO, COLOMBIA EFFORTS

WASHINGTON -- Under Pentagon pressure, congressional leaders want to
revive and pass this month a stalled multibillion-dollar spending
package for Colombia, U.S. peacekeepers in Kosovo and domestic disasters.

The House approved a $13 billion measure two months ago. It has
languished in the Senate because of Majority Leader Trent Lott,
R-Miss., who said the bill was expensive and time-consuming. The needs
could still be met, he argued, if Congress instead included the money
in regular spending bills and passed them quickly.

Now, Lott and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., would like to send
the money, in a still undetermined amount, to President Clinton by
June 30, when lawmakers are to begin a weeklong Fourth of July recess,
say congressional aides from both parties.

June 30 also is the day before the Army says it will have to start
curtailing minor construction, civilian hiring and other activities
unless it receives $1.5 billion the bill contains. Republicans do not
want such cutbacks blamed on them, particularly in an election year.

A message Army headquarters recently sent to field commanders demanded
details on how they would save 8 percent of their budgets beginning
July 1 if Congress did not quickly provide the money. Besides
construction and hiring reductions, the letter suggested supply and
maintenance cuts.

"Military prudence dictates we must plan now for the worst case," in
which the money would not be provided until later this year, the
message said.

The administration has been pressuring GOP leaders for weeks to act on
the bill. Clinton said this month it is needed for "pressing national
needs."

"It is an encouraging sign that, after many months, they now finally
appear to be ready to make progress on these essential needs," White
House budget office spokeswoman Linda Ricci said Friday.

Lott spokesman John Czwartacki said Friday the bill would be addressed
"sooner rather than later."

"The Clinton administration's actions, which have required a depletion
in the Pentagon's budget, concern us greatly, and that's why Congress,
like every year, will address the shortfall," Czwartacki said.

Czwartacki's reference was to Clinton's deployment of 5,900 U.S.
troops to serve as peacekeepers in Kosovo, an action Congress never
formally approved.

Clinton requested $5.2 billion at the beginning of this year, an
amount that grew to $5.5 billion. Most is for helping fight drug
producers in Colombia, which supplies most of the cocaine used in the
United States; U.S. troops in Kosovo; and the costs of disasters
including last September's Hurricane Floyd, which walloped North
Carolina and other Eastern states.

The House approved its $13 billion version of the bill on March 30,
pumping up the money Clinton sought for the Pentagon and domestic
natural disasters and other projects at home.

Lott said he supported the money for Colombia, Kosovo and disasters,
but said the measure was too costly and would take too much of the
Senate's time.

Instead, he said the Senate would take pieces of the bill -- but not
all of it -- and add them to several regular spending bills for fiscal
2001.