Senate rejects Democratic effort to add police funds to spending bill

<br>WASHINGTON (AP) _ The Senate killed a Democratic plan to add $500 million for local police to a mammoth $390 billion spending package on Friday as Republicans banded together behind President Bush

Friday, January 17th 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) _ The Senate killed a Democratic plan to add $500 million for local police to a mammoth $390 billion spending package on Friday as Republicans banded together behind President Bush in a drive to keep the bill's costs from ballooning.

The 52-46 vote demonstrated anew the GOP's ability to hold its slim majority _ so far _ against Democrats trying to increase spending for a range of programs. Bush wants to limit the bill's price tag as the country battles terrorists, an economic slump and revived federal deficits.

Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., said Republicans had ``cockamamie'' priorities and were shortchanging the FBI and other law enforcement programs.

``I think you guys have got it backwards,'' he said.

Republicans said the bill already has plenty of money for police. And Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, chief author of the bill, said that though the Senate measure has nothing for the Byrne grants program for local police agencies, he would restore funds when the House and Senate write a compromise package in coming weeks.

``I guarantee you it will survive,'' he said.

All 50 Republicans present were joined by Sens. Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., and Zell Miller, D-Ga., in the vote.

Afterward, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., abandoned his amendment seeking to add $150 million for equipment for detecting nuclear weapons that might be smuggled into ports. The Senate instead accepted a compromise by voice vote that would use some of the $24.7 billion already in the bill for domestic security for the initiative.

Democrats also were ready to seek added drought aid to the $3.1 billion the measure has for farmers. And they planned to try erasing across-the-board cuts of 2.9 percent that Republicans made in the bill to make room for extra spending for farmers, education, and overhauling local election systems.

On Thursday, Republicans stood firm as the Senate rejected two Democratic amendments to add first $5 billion, then $3 billion, for airport security ,the FBI and other domestic security programs.

Republicans also united to block a Democratic bid to add another $6 billion to the measure for school districts serving poor communities and loans for low-income college students. But first, GOP lawmakers shielded themselves from accusations of not making schools a top priority by voting to shift $5 billion to education from other programs in the bill.

In one crack in their solidarity with Bush, Republicans joined Democrats in a voice vote to push subsidies for Amtrak to $1.2 billion, $374 million more than the bill had included. The financially ailing passenger railroad has said it would be forced to shut down by spring if it got less than $1.2 billion.

Republicans said one provision of the bill raising Medicare reimbursements for rural hospitals and doctors would cost $400 million less than originally estimated, leaving room for the Amtrak funds without raising legislation's overall cost. But they and Democrats said the Amtrak amendment was popular enough to have passed anyway.

From national park maintenance to staffing veterans' hospitals, the bill would finance every agency but the Pentagon for the federal budget year that began Oct. 1. It combines 11 separate measures that died in the last Congress because Democrats and some Republicans balked at the spending limits Bush wanted.

Republicans want to pass the bill quickly and start work on next year's budget. But Democrats say the measure lacks sufficient funds, and frequently contrasted it with Bush's desire to pare taxes by $674 billion over the next decade.

The 1,052-page bill was studded with hundreds of projects senators carved out for their home states.

There was $350,000 for fruit research in Kearneysville, W.Va., home state of Byrd, senior Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, which writes spending bills.

There was also $5.6 million for a new visitors center in Arches National Park in Utah, and $500,000 for a rooftop observatory for Widener University in Pennsylvania. GOP Sens. Robert Bennett of Utah and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania are both on the Appropriations Committee.

After Senate passage, House-Senate negotiators will have to write a compromise that Congress would send to Bush for his signature.

Of the 13 spending bills for the current budget year, only two have been enacted, both covering the Defense Department.