Congress approves $329 billion in spending

By Richard Simon
Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON — Congress yesterday sent to President Bush a $328.5 billion spending bill that clears the way for new rules dealing with gun purchases, media ownership and overtime pay.

The measure, which cleared the House in December, will finance a wide range of Cabinet departments and government agencies for the 2004 fiscal year, which began Oct. 1.

Its approval comes as Congress readies for a bruising election-year budget battle over Bush's 2005 spending plan, which will be unveiled Feb. 2.

Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., called the measure a "Frankenstein of a bill."

And during the debate Wednesday, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a critic of what he estimated is $11 billion in "pork-barrel" spending in the measure, urged: "Veto this bill, Mr. President."

But Bush said he would sign the bill, which includes money for some of his initiatives, including $2.4 billion for combating AIDS worldwide and a $423-million boost in the FBI's efforts against terrorism.

It also allows the administration to move ahead with controversial rules that would limit overtime pay, let giant media companies buy more TV stations, and delay implementation of country-of-origin food labeling.

In a statement, Bush said he was pleased that the bill "stays within the spending limits I proposed, which is necessary as we work to cut the deficit in half over the next five years."

But Jill Lancelot, president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a Washington-based budget watchdog group, decried legislators' lack of fiscal discipline.

"Lawmakers see this as the kickoff for the 2004 re-election campaigns," she said.

"They can now go back home with their pockets full of goodies for their constituents, leaving a huge crater of a budget deficit behind in Washington."

The measure includes a provision, supported by the National Rifle Association, that will require the destruction of records on background checks for gun purchases within 24 hours if law enforcement officials find no immediate red flags; currently, records can be saved for 90 days.

Democrats objected to Republican leaders stripping a provision that would have blocked the Labor Department from implementing a new overtime rule, which critics say will deny overtime pay to up to 8 million workers.

Both houses of Congress last year voted to block the rule, but Bush threatened to make the spending measure his first veto if it tied his hands.

A veto threat also led Republican leaders to allow media companies to become larger than many lawmakers wanted.

House and Senate majorities earlier had voted to oppose a Federal Communications Commission decision permitting a media company to own TV stations reaching 45 percent of the U.S. viewers, up from 35 percent. But Republican leaders, fearing a veto, raised the cap to 39 percent.

Some lawmakers — Republicans as well as Democrats — also objected to the two-year delay in the requirement for country-of-origin labels on meat, an issue that gained prominence after last month's discovery of a case of mad cow disease in Washington state.

"We can drive a vehicle on the surface of Mars and we cannot put labels on meat?" said Sen. Byron L. Dorgan, D-N.D., who held up a package of steak on the Senate floor. "Total nonsense."

But Sen. Robert F. Bennett, R-Utah, said the delay in food labeling was a compromise. House members wanted to kill the program, which they regard as costly and difficult for the food industry to implement.

Several Republican senators who favor labeling said they had been assured by party leaders that the Senate would reconsider the issue later this year.

In the end, however, the hundreds of home-state projects packed into the bill — and the politically riskier alternative of failing to pass a spending bill and leaving spending for many programs at last year's lower levels — made the package too difficult for most lawmakers to resist in an election year.

"There are provisions in this bill that I would have preferred be different," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. But, he added, "It is time to move on."

In a preview of the fight over the 2005 budget, Democrats accused Republicans of caving in to White House pressure and putting the interests of business ahead of the interests of workers.

"By all means, let us satisfy the White House, forgetting, I guess, that there are separate branches in the government," Dorgan said during the debate this week.

Democrats said they would look for other ways to try to block the overtime rules and implement the country-of-origin food labeling sooner.

"These issues will not go away," Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., vowed.

Hawai'i's senators, Democrats Dan Inouye and Daniel Akaka, voted for the bill.

Correction: The appropriations bill approved by Congress this week includes $17.5 million for the East-West Center. A list of appropriations with a previous version of this story gave an incorrect figure.