Senate threatened with veto of add-ons in spending bill

The White House said President Bush will veto the Senate’s $106.5 billion spending bill for hurricane relief and the war on terror if senators do not remove billions in extra, unrelated allocations.

“The administration is seriously concerned with the overall funding level,”the Office of Management and Budget said late yesterday. “Accordingly, if the president is ultimately presented a bill that provides more than $92.2 billion, … he will veto the bill.”

Leading conservatives warned yesterday that Republicans risk losing their majority over “pork” spending and that Mr. Bush should veto the legislation if the lawmakers don’t trim the fat.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Tennessee Republican, welcomed Mr. Bush’s threat. “I applaud the administration’s determination to stick to true emergency spending, and will support a veto, if necessary,” he said.

David A. Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union, said Americans want Congress to curb out-of-control federal spending, not add to it.

“They’re playing the game that Democrats played for 40 years: ‘We can buy our re-election,’” he said.

Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, said, “It’s in the president’s interest to veto this bill.”

The level of the Senate bill is $14 billion above what the House approved and above Mr. Bush’s request of $92 billion.

Critics say several of the add-ons hardly qualify as emergency spending.

One example is a $700 million allocation to reroute a railroad in Mississippi northward. Some have dubbed it “the railroad to nowhere.”

Rep. Mike Pence, Indiana Republican, also supported a veto.

Rep. Jeff Flake, Arizona Republican, said Mr. Bush “has been complicit in Congress’ spending spree for too long.”

Conservatives led by Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican, aim to reduce the cost of the bill this week by removing some of the add-ons.

The Senate measure contains $72.4 billion for military operations and the war on terror and $27 billion for hurricane relief — well above the roughly $19 billion in hurricane relief requested by Mr. Bush. It also adds $4 billion for agricultural disaster assistance, $2.3 billion for pandemic flu preparedness and $648 million for port security.

The OMB said Mr. Bush approves of the funding for flu preparedness, but insists that the other items be removed.

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