Editor's Note: The 5th paragraph shows drugs and pork coming together.

HOUSE OK'S $15 BILLION PACKAGE FOR PENTAGON, DISATER RELIEF

Bill covers a multitude of costs, from bombing to refugees to reindeer

WASHINGTON -- The House easily approved a $15 billion package yesterday to
pay for the bombing in Yugoslavia, recovery from killer storms in the
Caribbean and the United States and a host of home-state projects.

The vote was 269-158, despite anger from conservatives over the package's
cost and from liberals over its military spending and environmental
provisions. Senate passage is possible today, and President Clinton's
signature was all but assured.

"Now is not the time to fight for special interests," House Speaker Dennis
Hastert told his colleagues, referring to complaints about some provisions.
"It's a time for Congress to promote the national interest. And this bill
serves, in my opinion, the national interest."

The bulk of the package -- $12 billion -- covers U.S. costs of NATO's
bombardment of Yugoslavia, aid to refugees and to Balkan countries
sheltering them, and extra money for weapons, training and other Pentagon
accounts. Clinton wanted half that amount, but Republicans said the extra
money is needed to rebuild armed services the president has allowed to wither.

Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, a Southern Maryland Democrat who is a member of the
House Appropriations Committee, inserted a provision assigning $500,000 for
a joint anti-drug initiative involving Prince George's County and the
District of Columbia. The program is geared to catch felons who commit a
crime in one jurisdiction and flee to the other. The money, according to
Hoyer, would provide overtime pay for police officers and surveillance
equipment.

Also at Hoyer's behest, the spending measure includes a nonbinding
provision saying that federal employees should receive the same percentage
raises given to military personnel for the fiscal year beginning Oct 1.

The Senate has already passed a similar resolution. If the Congress were to
give federal employees the 4.8 percent increase that is slated for military
personnel, it would cost an additional $300 million next year and more in
the future. Congress has adopted a budget that would give federal employees
a 4.4 percent raise.

Hastert's remarks, made early in the debate, spotlighted the leadership's
determination to approve the bill, in contrast to his passive performance
last month when the House refused to back the air war. Even so, opponents
of U.S. policy in the Balkans spoke out.

Most of the bill will be paid for from this year's expected $111 billion
federal surplus, which will come from Social Security. Because the GOP has
pledged repeatedly to leave the pension program's surpluses alone, some
conservatives soured on the package, pointing to projects they said should
have been removed.

"Money for reindeer?" said Rep. Greg Ganske, an Iowa Republican, referring
to one provision. "I mean, is Santa in trouble?"

The bill also contains $1 billion for a recent spate of hard-hitting
natural disasters, chiefly last autumn's Hurricane Mitch, which ravaged
Central America. Clinton requested the money in February, but lawmakers
were in little hurry to approve it until it became a convenient vehicle for
rushing the military funds through Congress.

Another $900 million would replenish the Federal Emergency Management
Agency's budget so it can pay for this month's tornadoes in Oklahoma and
other natural disasters.

The measure allocates $574 million to help American farmers, especially
those facing low prices for hogs, wheat and other commodities. That
included $70 million to help livestock producers, which was amended by
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, an Alaska Republican,
to include reindeer.

In a victory for Republicans and governors, the bill forbids the government
from claiming any of a $246 billion legal settlement states have reached
with the tobacco industry. Clinton wanted to use some of the money for
federal anti-smoking and health programs.

A stew of other provisions includes $10 million to bring 3,000 Russian
political leaders to the United States for a month of observing the U.S.
government and economy at work and $6.5 million to monitor elections in
East Timor, which is deciding whether to break free of Indonesia.