SENATE BEATS BACK ATTEMPT TO GIVE BUSH WHAT HE WANTS FOR ANDEAN DRUG FIGHT

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.