LOTT BLOCKS EMERGENCY SPENDING MEASURE

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) prevailed yesterday in
temporarily blocking action on an emergency spending bill to cover military
costs in Kosovo and anti-drug efforts in Colombia, even as President
Clinton warned that the delay could compromise military readiness and U.S.
interests abroad.

Under strong pressure from Lott, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman
Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) canceled a planned markup--a meeting to prepare the
emergency package for floor action. Lott insisted that the $12.7 billion
bill that emerged from the House last week is "bloated" and that most of
the essential funds could be approved later this spring as part of the
normal appropriations process.

Stevens agreed with House leaders and the White House on the necessity of
moving swiftly, to help bolster the tottering government in Colombia and to
replenish the Pentagon's exhausted operation and maintenance accounts. But
he backed down after a meeting with Lott and other GOP Senate leaders
Monday evening.

"I don't arrange chairs on the deck of the Titanic," Stevens said. "I'm not
going to mark up a bill that's not going to be called up" by Lott.

The conflict between Lott and the gruff Stevens became personal, according
to some observers, and the majority leader stubbornly stood his ground.
Lott "had to show that his call stands. I think [the dispute] became more
personal than philosophical," according to a Senate Democratic leader.

The House-passed bill is more than twice the $5.1 billion package Clinton
originally sought. It includes $1.3 billion of anti-drug funding and
economic assistance to Colombia and other Latin American countries, $8.9
billion for Kosovo and other national security matters and $2.3 billion for
hurricane and other disaster relief. Stevens had planned to present his
committee with a bill costing at least $9 billion.

Clinton said yesterday he is disappointed with Lott's decision. "I firmly
believe that any action to delay consideration of these pressing needs
would impose unnecessary costs to Americans at home, to our interests
abroad and to our military readiness around the world," Clinton said.

The Pentagon has said that military readiness will suffer if the money
already spent to cover U.S. peacekeeping costs in Kosovo is not replenished
by the end of May. Moreover, Assistant Defense Secretary Brian Sheridan
testified yesterday on Capitol Hill, the explosive rise in coca cultivation
and cocaine production in southern Colombia in the past two years will
continue if the U.S. anti-drug funding does not materialize.

The Colombian government is not particularly concerned about a modest delay
of, say, another month or so in getting the aid, sources said. But
officials fear that if the aid becomes caught up in the fight over next
year's budget, it could be seriously scaled back.

If the emergency aid is to be funded out of this year's budget surplus, as
proponents demand, then it must be approved by Congress before Oct. 1, the
start of the new fiscal year. Lott insists that emergency funding for
Kosovo, Colombia and disaster relief can be approved in the next month or
so, perhaps as one huge amendment to a fiscal 2001 appropriations bill for
defense or foreign operations.

"You could probably just attach it to the first moving appropriations
bill," Lott said. "You can be innovative in a lot of different ways around
here," he said.

Staff writer Karen DeYoung contributed to this report.