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Senators craft FY07 budget with big defense tab

Posted on: Thursday, 9 March 2006, 17:47 CST

By Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate Budget Committee narrowly approved a fiscal 2007 budget plan on Thursday that would substantially hike defense funding and provoke another confrontation over whether to open a protected area of Alaska to oil and gas drilling.

On a partisan 11-10 vote, the committee sent the budget to the Senate floor, where debate could begin on Monday. The budget blueprint is nonbinding but it does shape congressional spending decisions.

Under the Republican-backed plan, defense funding would hit $457.1 billion, about $18 billion more than requested by President George W. Bush last month and a $25 billion increase from this year's budget.

That total would be in addition to the about $86 billion the committee anticipates for next year's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That figure could go higher.

Budget Committee Republicans boasted that defense spending would be "double that of 1998 and well above the Cold War average."

Committee Chairman Judd Gregg, a New Hampshire Republican, said his budget would cut U.S. deficits in half over the next four years. "It obviously does not resolve all the debt issues," Gregg said, adding, "but it contains spending and that's our job."

Last year's budget passed the Senate by a narrow margin and without any support from Democrats. Gregg said passage this year would again be "a challenge" and predicted the Alaska drilling provision "will be a major item of debate."

Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota, the senior Democrat on the committee, blasted the Republican budget, saying it doesn't factor in some significant future costs. "If you like debt, you'll love this budget. Up, up and away," he added.

Conrad complained that the Republican plan would increase U.S. debt by more than $600 billion annually for the next five years.

Besides debating a budget next week, the Republican-led Senate is expected to vote on politically-difficult legislation to increase U.S. borrowing authority by as much as $781 billion. The measure is needed because of rising debt that is pushing the Treasury Department up to its $8.18 trillion borrowing limit.

The Senate's budget plan would result in a $359 billion government deficit, down slightly from the $371 billion in red ink recently estimated for this fiscal year that ends September 30 by the Congressional Budget Office.

DEMOCRATS REBUFFED

The annual budget process stirs spirited wrangling between Republicans and Democrats as the document sets policies that touch on virtually every nook of American society.

On a party-line vote, Democrats failed to remove the provision to open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for energy development.

The language was tucked into the budget so that under obscure Senate rules it could be approved on a simple majority vote. A similar Republican tactic last year was ultimately foiled by moderate Republicans in the House of Representatives who opposed the drilling.

Senate Democrats also failed in attempts to add money for avian flu preparations, veterans health care, firefighter programs, port security and education.

In nearly all of those cases, Gregg said the government already had adequately increased funding.

The Medicare health care program for the elderly would receive $382 billion in fiscal 2007 that starts October 1, a $55 billion increase over this year. Gregg said he expects a $7 billion fund for private health plans in Medicare to be cut.

Gregg abandoned hopes of pursuing more long-term savings to the program in this election year.

Source: REUTERS

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