House Majority Leader Dick Armey Monday issued a letter stating President Clinton's expected $6 billion supplemental request for funding for the operation in Kosovo is inadequate because the endeavor is depleting other military resources.
"Even $10 billion would be insufficient to begin fixing six years of Clinton-Gore neglect of our armed forces," he said. Armey warned of the possibility of an "anti-axis," whereby rogue states and terrorists could take advantage of U.S. commitments abroad to "move against us simultaneously."
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., issued a more guarded statement today that indicated he also feels the request may be inadequate. "This emergency funding measure cannot be shortsighted-it cannot simply replace bullets for bullets and bombs for bombs spent in Kosovo," he said.
Speaking to reporters today, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., reiterated his view that new spending for Kosovo should be considered an "emergency" and not be subject to offsets, while warning Republicans not to burden the bill with unrelated priorities.
"I think it will be very difficult, if not impossible," he said, "if we encumber this legislation with add- ons, and make it more controversial by not allowing offsets for add-ons we oppose."
At the White House, Press Secretary Joe Lockhart said the Kosovo supplemental will include funding to ensure that "military readiness is as sharp at the end of the year" as it was at the beginning. But he cautioned that Clinton still opposes efforts to add new military spending onto the measure.
Lockhart, who indicated that estimates of a $6 billion request still are correct, said the bill is being designed to cover the estimated cost of the bombing campaign "at peak levels" through the end of the year.
In other action related to supplemental appropriations, Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, and Bob Graham, D-Fla., along with GOP Connecticut Gov. John Rowland, today urged conferees on the FY99 disaster supplemental to retain the Senate-passed amendment prohibiting the federal government from claiming a share of states' tobacco settlement money.
House Appropriations Chairman Young did not include similar language in the House disaster supplemental bill for procedural reasons, but supports the provision's intent, according to his spokeswoman.
Hutchison defended adding the amendment to an emergency supplemental, which includes hurricane relief funds for Central America and aid to U.S. farmers, and has been stalled since before the Easter recess.
"This really is an emergency-many legislatures, if not most, go out in June," said Hutchison, whose own state's legislature meets biennially.
Hastert has said he wants to move the Kosovo supplemental separately from the disaster supplemental, while Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott's preference is to package Kosovo funding with the disaster bill prior to Senate floor action-but no decisions have made about whether and at what point in the legislative process the two might be combined.