SENATE PASSES $15.6B FOREIGN AID BILL

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate overwhelmingly passed a $15.6 billion foreign
aid bill Wednesday after sharply cutting President Bush's request to fight
illegal drugs in South America.

"We're spending four times more on the Andean drug program ... than what
we're doing to stop disease -- smallpox or tuberculosis, malaria, ebola,
plague -- from coming into our country," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.,
chairman of the Appropriations Committee's foreign operations panel.

"We've got to set some priorities," he said. "We've poured money down so
fast we can't spend the money they've got in the pipeline."

Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., chairman of the Intelligence Committee, contended
the Senate should spend the full $731 million Bush requested for the
program to fight drugs and advance economic and political stability in
Colombia and its neighbors. Leahy's panel had cut it by $164 million to
$567 million.

The Senate passed the foreign aid measure 96-2, with Graham and Sen. Robert
Byrd, D-W.Va., casting the dissenting votes. Sens. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and
Mary Landrieu, D-La., did not vote.

The House's $15.2 billion foreign aid spending bill, passed in July,
contains $676 million for the Andean drug effort.

The Andean program "represents the most significant remaining activity to
stem the flow of drugs into the United States," said Graham. The cutback,
he said, "will seriously curtail a program on the verge of success with no
alternative supply reduction strategy available."

"Hardly more than a year into this battle, we are beginning to sound the
trumpet of retreat and running up the white flag of surrender," Graham said
before losing a procedural vote, 27-72, that blocked his amendment.

Economic support for certain Middle East countries followed agreements
reached in 1998. Under those plans, Israel will get $720 million; Egypt,
$655 million; and Jordan, $150 million. As for foreign military financing,
the committee provided the administration's request of $2.04 billion for
Israel, $1.3 billion for Egypt and $75 million for Jordan.

Separately, the Senate approved by voice vote a one-year moratorium on the
drug certification program, in which the State Department certifies which
foreign countries cooperate fully in the war against drugs. Many allies,
including Mexico, have rebelled at such a scorecard, and Bush has indicated
support for eliminating the procedure.

The Senate also approved spending $2 million for education programs for
Afghan women.

The House Appropriations Committee unanimously approved a $317.5 billion
defense spending bill Wednesday, but that figure could go up by $20 billion
or more for the war on terrorism before the full House votes on it.

"This is basically a peacetime defense bill, and we ain't at peace no
more," said Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., chairman of the committee's defense
panel.

Committee leaders said that before the House votes on the measure, the
committee probably will include Bush's request to spend $20 billion, part
of the $40 billion Congress approved in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks.

The spending bill for fiscal 2002, which began Oct. 1, is $19 billion more
than last year's, representing a 6 percent increase and $1.9 billion less
than Bush requested. It doesn't cover all defense spending, as Congress has
separately approved $10.5 billion for military construction spending, and
more money is included in other appropriations measures.

"We will provide whatever it takes to make sure our country ... is secure,"
said Appropriations Committee Chairman Bill Young, R-Fla., who said he
anticipates the full House will vote next week.

"This bill should be supported across the board," said Rep. David Obey,
D-Wis., the panel's top Democrat, who had voted against most defense bills
in the last decade. Money "above and beyond the $20 billion" is needed,
Obey said.

The bill's $7.9 billion for missile defense -- $400 million less than Bush
sought but $2.7 billion more than was spent last year -- is wrapped into a
new counterterrorism and weapons of mass destruction program. That program
also would:

- --Give the defense secretary and CIA director a rapid-response capability
for the war on terrorism and defense against such threats as chemical and
biological attack.

- --Provide $894 million, $155 million more than Bush sought, to speed
fielding of the latest Patriot theater missile defense system, known for
its use against Scuds during the Gulf war a decade ago.