The House : Stealth Bomber

The House voted 257 to 160 to keep the Stealth bomber program alive in the next fiscal year, but on a much leaner budget than President Bush wants and under congressional quality controls seen as excessive by many advocates of the futuristic warplane. The amendment was added to the $305-billion defense authorization bill for fiscal 1990 that later was sent to conference with the Senate.

Designed to elude enemy radar and reach targets deep within Soviet territory, the nuclear-equipped Stealth, or B-2, would become the new air leg of America’s air-land-sea “triad� strategy for deterring nuclear war with the Soviets. Each plane would cost upwards of $500 million.

The amendment calls for Congress to appropriate $3.7 billion for Stealth research and production next year rather than the $4.7 billion sought by the Pentagon, permits only two planes to be built next year rather than the five that the Administration wants assembled, and imposes performance standards on the unproven Stealth technology. But the amendment puts production on hold until the Administration devises and Congress accepts a scaled-back version of the Air Force’s present plan to build 132 planes at a cost of $70 billion.

Members voting yes supported the amendment.

How They Voted Yea Nay No vote Rep. Gallegly (R) x Rep. Lagomarsino (R) x

Rail-Based MX

The House adopted, 224 to 197, an amendment to strip the 1990 defense bill of money for transferring MX missiles from stationary silos to moving railroad cars. The rail deployment of U.S. missiles is slated for completion early in the nextdecade unless a new arms control pact with the Soviet Union rules it out.

The amendment deleted about $500 million in procurement funding while leaving about $600 million in the bill for continuing research and development of the rail garrison plan. House members later stripped the bill of all its funding for America’s other next-generation missile system, the truck-borne Midgetman.

Members voting yes wanted to slow development of the rail-based MX missile system.

How They Voted Yea Nay No vote Rep. Gallegly (R) x Rep. Lagomarsino (R) x

SDI Funding

By a 248-175 vote, the House lowered funding for the proposed Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) anti-missile shield by $700 million in the next fiscal year. That reduction, combined with an earlier cut in the House Armed Services Committee, pared President Bush’s fiscal 1990 request for SDI from $4.8 billion to $3.1 billion. The research and development money is contained in the 1990 military spending bill.

Members voting yes wanted to cut SDI funding.

How They Voted Yea Nay No vote Rep. Gallegly (R) x Rep. Lagomarsino (R) x