Statement of Administration Policy: H.R. 889 - Emergency Supplemental Appropriations and Recessions for the Department of Defense to Preserve and Enhance Military Readiness Bill, FY 1995 & H.R. 845 — Rescinding Certain Budget Authority, and for Other Purposes, FY 1995

(House Floor)
H.R. 889: (Sponsor: Livingston (R), Louisiana)
H.R. 845: (Sponsor: Livingston (R), Louisiana)

This Statement of Administration Policy expresses the Administration's views on H.R. 889, the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations and Rescissions for the Department of Defense to Preserve and Enhance Military Readiness Bill, FY 1995, and H.R. 845, a bill rescinding certain budget authority, and for other purposes, as reported by the House Appropriations Committee.

H.R. 889

The Administration appreciates the Appropriations Committee's prompt action to approve $2,539 million of the Administration's request for $2,557 million for unbudgeted contingency operations for the Department of Defense (DoD). However, we strongly oppose other actions the Committee has taken. The Committee bill would add $670 million for unrequested activities not requiring emergency appropriations that would be more appropriately funded through reprogrammings. More troubling, the bill would finance this $670 million through cuts to programs important to our military strategy and defense planning for the next century.

H.R. 889, as reported by the Committee, would adversely affect a number of the Administration's priorities. The Technology Reinvestment Project (TRP) and the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program play critical roles in our ability to deploy advanced technology on the future battlefield and in our ability to reduce future nuclear threats to the United States. The TRP program is crucial to our effort to integrate our commercial high technology industry with defense requirements. Our technological edge into the next century depends on such integration.

Similarly, our regional security is enhanced in a uniquely cost-effective way through the Nunn-Lugar program. We have already seen significant threat reduction through this program. The funds being considered for rescission would enable us to continue this progress by ensuring that Russian strategic rocket forces personnel do not become a source of instability and by creating new market opportunities for industries that were the backbone of the Soviet nuclear threat.

The Administration believes that the $2.5 billion that is included in Title I of H.R. 889 as emergency funding under P.L. 101-508, the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990 (BEA), is not required to be offset. The BEA emergency authority was established specifically to provide for the funding of unanticipated requirements.

The Administration strongly supports the expeditious approval of the full $2,557 million requested for the Department of Defense as emergency supplemental appropriations. This includes $18 million in military construction funds not approved by the Committee to support Cuban migrants at Guantanamo. The Administration is committed to working with the Congress to ensure the enactment of these emergency appropriations.

H.R. 845

The Committee-reported bill, H.R. 845, would rescind $1.4 billion of funding for non-DoD programs in order to finance, in part, the supplemental appropriations for the Defense Department provided by H.R. 889. The Administration is committed to reducing low-priority discretionary spending and has proposed $2.4 billion of defense and non-defense reductions in order to offset the requested non-emergency supplementals. We do not believe it is appropriate to pay for emergency spending in the Department of Defense with the $1.4 billion of non-DoD reductions reported by the Committee.