Democrats criticize Bush over terrorism bill

WASHINGTON -- The White House threat to veto the Senate's $31.4 billion anti-terrorism bill is inconsistent with recent Bush administration warnings of possible new attacks by the al-Qaida network, the Senate majority leader said Wednesday.\n"It's troubling that the administration would say that we're spending too much on homeland defense, that we're spending too much on the effort on the war on terror ... given the fears generated by the pronouncements (by the administration)," Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., told reporters.\nWhite House officials issued the veto threat Tuesday, complaining that the measure exceeds the $27.1 billion request that President Bush sent Congress in March. The election-year squabble pits administration efforts to limit spending at a time when federal deficits are returning against Democratic attempts to beef up domestic counter-terror initiatives.\n"For the administration to say, 'Well, we want to respond but not that much,' is a hard sell to the American people," Daschle said.\nSenators from both parties lined up to offer amendments. They included an effort by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., to add $150 million for summer schools and a plan by bipartisan fiscal conservatives to set spending limits for the next five years, which both seemed likely to lose.\n"We're going to go after this pork barrel spending and go after it and after it and after it," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who was preparing amendments to cut items from the bill.\nDaschle set a procedural vote that was likely on Thursday to limit debate on the measure. He seemed likely to prevail, which could mean the Senate would finish the bill this week.\nIn Tuesday's only roll call, the Senate voted 91-4 to drop a ban the bill had included on new emergency loans for airlines until Oct. 1. The loans are part of a bailout program for air carriers enacted just after the Sept. 11 attacks.\nThe vote was a major boon to financially ailing US Airways, which says it needs a $1 billion emergency loan this summer. By erasing the $393 million the loan restrictions were supposed to save, the overall bill's cost grew to $31.4 billion.\nThe House anti-terror bill would block new loans until October, but aides predict the eventual House-Senate compromise will omit the restrictions.\nThe counterterror legislation is dominated by funds for defense, intelligence, aviation safety, local law enforcement and aid to help New York rebuild from the attacks. Most Senate add-ons are for domestic security programs.\n "The Senate bill includes scores of unneeded items that total billions of dollars -- all classified as an 'emergency,'" said a White House statement on the bill. "The bill adds unrequested funds for numerous programs and projects throughout nearly all of the federal agencies."\n Projects the administration found objectionable include $100 million to secure Russian nuclear weapons and $315 million for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention construction, which the White House said could not possibly be spent this year.\nThe spending is for the remaining months of the federal fiscal year that runs through Sept. 30.\nSen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, top Republican on the Appropriations Committee and co-author of the bill, called the veto threat "just a tactic of the administration."\n"We'll work this out (by the time a compromise bill is finished)," he said.