ACCESSION NUMBER:233798
FILE ID:PO-402
DATE:07/02/92
TITLE:CONGRESSIONAL REPORT, THURSDAY, JULY 2 (07/02/92)
TEXT:*92070202.POL
CONGRESSIONAL REPORT, THURSDAY, JULY 2

(Military budget, START Treaty, nominations)  (530)
HOUSE APPROVES MILITARY BUDGET
The House of Representatives, by a 328-94 vote July 2, approved a
$252,000 million defense appropriations bill for fiscal year 1993 that is
$9,000 million less than President Bush sought.  The Senate is expected to
complete its version of the bill in September and then conferees from both
the Senate and the House will have to meet to work out a compromise
package.

The House measure contains $4,300 million for the Strategic Defense
Initiative, less than the $5,400 million the administration sought but the
highest amount ever adopted, and $4,000 million for four B-2 stealth
bombers.  The House acceded to Bush's decision to end the program at 20
planes and rejected, 284-173, an amendment to cut B-2 funds by $2,700
million.

Other provisions in the House bill would prohibit the proposed sale of LTV
Corporation's missile division to a French electronics firm and call for
eliminating 10,000 administrative positions at the Navy's departmental and
major command headquarters.

SENATE PANEL APPROVES START PACT
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee July 2 approved the Strategic Arms
Reduction Treaty (START) calling for mutual reductions by Russia, other
former Soviet republics, and the United States in long-range nuclear
weapons.

The treaty, signed in 1991 by President Bush and then Soviet President
Gorbachev, would reduce each side's nuclear warheads by about one-third.

1lthough it has been overshadowed by the historic agreement last month
between Bush and Russian President Yeltsin to further slash the U.S. and
Russian strategic arsenals by another third, the administration has viewed
Senate ratification of the START pact as vital to beginning the actual
reductions.

The Foreign Relations Committee approved the treaty without dissent but
added a condition sought by Senator Joseph Biden requiring the
administration to negotiate the destruction of warheads and not just
missiles in the next round of arms talks.

Committee aides said the treaty is expected to be sent to the full Senate
for its advise and consent to ratification before Labor Day.

SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS APPROVES AMBASSADORS
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee July 2 approved by voice vote and
sent to the full Senate the following White House nominations:

-- William Clark to be assistant secretary of state for East Asian and
Pacific affairs,

-- Robert Barry to be ambassador to Indonesia,
-- Richard Solomon to be ambassador to the Philippines,
-- David Fields to be ambassador to the Marshall Islands,
-- Charles Salmon to be ambassador to Laos,
-- Alison Rosenberg to be assistant administrator for Africa at the U.S.
Agency for International Development,

-- Kenneth Brown to be ambassador to Ghana,
-- Princeton Lyman to be ambassador to South Africa,
-- Joseph Wilson to be ambassador to Gabon and Sao Tome and Principe,
-- Joseph Segars to be ambassador to Cape Verde,
-- Frank Wisner to be under secretary of state for coordinating security
assistance programs,

-- Robert Gallucci to be assistant secretary of state for politico-military
affairs, and

-- Irvin Hicks to be U.S. deputy representative to the U.N. Security Council
with the rank of ambassador.

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