Four House Democrats critical of tentative plans to spend money on both the MX and Midgetman nuclear missiles are hoping to scuttle congressional efforts to finish a $305 billion defense bill.
"I hope it kills the conference," Rep. Charles Bennett, D-Fla., chairman of a House Armed Services subcommittee, said after he and three other lawmakers said they could not sign the provisional conference report.Their decision is a problem for the conference on the defense bill and could spell trouble when the legislation reaches the House floor. However, lawmakers expressed hope Wednesday a majority of the more than 100 House and Senate conferees would agree to the report.
House Armed Services conferees planned to meet Thursday on whether to give final approval to the fiscal 1990 defense bill.
The compromise package, based on House and Senate bills passed in early August, includes a $1.1 billion cut in President Bush's request for the Strategic Defense Initiative for a Pentagon total of $3.55 billion and one less B-2 Stealth bomber than the administration sought, said lawmakers and congressional sources who requested anonymity.
The bill also includes about $1.2 billion for the MX multiple-warhead, rail-based missile and the Midgetman single-warhead, truck-based missile, which is equivalent to the $1.1 billion Bush proposed for the MX and $100 million for the Midgetman.
The bill requires Defense Secretary Dick Cheney to cut $100 million from the $1.2 billion and gives him discretion on how to spend the remaining amount. Cheney favored funding only the MX missile, but Bush opted for both land-based nuclear missiles.
That provision drew complaints from the four House members, including three chairmen of Armed Services subcommittees.
"We feel that the proposed deal on the B-2, Strategic Defense Initiative and mobile ICBM's is inadequate and we cannot sign the conference report in its present form," the four said in a letter to Rep. Les Aspin, D-Wis., chairman of the Armed Services panel.