136th Year... and still on the job!	Wednesday May 11, 2005

WASHINGTON - The Senate approved an $82 billion supplemental budget bill Tuesday evening that includes $372 million, plus tough language requiring the Pentagon to destroy the mustard weapons stored at the Pueblo Chemical Depot and the Blue Grass Depot in Kentucky.

The unanimous, 100-0 vote ends a protracted battle between Colorado lawmakers and the Pentagon over its reluctance to spend money on a new water-based weapon destruction system.

Pentagon officials had diverted money away from the project last year and even talked about transporting the mustard weapons elsewhere for destruction. That led to long discussions between the Defense Department and Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., along with Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., and Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo.

Allard, as a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, was able trump the delaying tactics of the Pentagon by putting specific language in the budget bill requiring the Defense Department to spend the previously budgeted money on the Colorado and Kentucky projects next year. In fact, the Pentagon will have 100 days to commit the first $100 million to work at both sites.

The House passed the budget bill last week and President Bush is expected to sign it within a few days.

"We have, in effect, engraved this in stone," Allard said Tuesday. "This supplemental appropriations bill forbids, by law, any consideration of moving the chemical weapons out of Pueblo for disposal. Additionally, it directs the Department of Defense to begin contracting for disposal of the chemical weapons on site. . . There is no way the department can misconstrue or second-guess Congress' intent."

Salazar also supported the measure Tuesday, saying U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan needed the additional financial support. He criticized the bill - worked out by House and Senate negotiators - for leaving out Senate amendments that would have provided more funds to armor U.S. vehicles in Iraq and provide more pay to National Guard and reservists on active duty.

The supplemental bill was originally intended to provide more aid to the U.S. effort in Iraq, but many provisions were added to it concerning illegal immigration - which drew criticism from some Democrats.

The bill, the fifth such special spending package Congress has taken up since the 9/11 terrorist attacks would boost the cost of fighting terrorism since then to more than $300 billion. The measure includes a nearly tenfold increase in the one-time payment for families of troops killed in combat, and money to build a sprawling U.S. embassy in Iraq.

The measure also requires states to start issuing more uniform driver’s licenses and to verify the citizenship or legal status of people getting them. And it toughens asylum laws, authorizes the completion of a fence along the California-Mexico border and provides money to hire more border security agents.

The House had included most of the immigration provisions in its version of the bill. The Senate did not, but lawmakers agreed during negotiations on the final bill to go along with the House.

Democrats said they would vote in favor of the overall bill, but many used the opportunity to assail Republicans for tacking on the immigration provisions.

Salazar questioned the bill's language that states require four types of identification before issuing drivers licenses to an applicant. He said that was an additional expense being forced on the states.

"It will not reduce the flow of undocumented immigrants who come to the United States," he said. "Instead, it will heap an unfunded mandate on the states - passing onto the states our duty to protect our borders - at the same time as it denies protection to the refugees who come to this country seeking freedom from religious and political persecution."

Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, the lead Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the provisions ‘‘were formulated behind closed doors by the House and Senate Republican leadership.’’ And, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington added: ‘‘We were denied an opportunity to debate and discuss these immigration reforms.’’

The House easily approved the war spending package last week.

Most of the money - $75.9 billion - is slated for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, while $4.2 billion goes to foreign aid and other international relations programs worldwide.

The president sent Congress his spending proposal in February and the final bill - a compromise between previous versions passed by the House and Senate - looks largely like what he requested even though both Republican-controlled chambers had promised to fund only items and programs that lawmakers deemed urgent.

Sen. Thad Cochran, a Mississippi Republican and chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, called the final bill ‘‘a genuine compromise between the two bodies on legislation that is of utmost importance to our troops who are deployed in the war on terror and for our allies around the world.’’

Overall, the measure reflects a desire by lawmakers to give the Pentagon what it needs while holding the line on State Department spending. Lawmakers provided roughly $1 billion more than the president had sought for defense and about $1.5 billion less than he wanted for international relations programs.

The bill boosts the one-time benefit for survivors of troops killed in combat zones - from $12,000 to $100,000. The increase would apply retroactively to families of troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan beginning on Oct. 7, 2001.

On the foreign affairs side, the measure provides $592 million for a secure diplomatic compound in Baghdad, $230 million for U.S. allies in the war on terror, and $200 million in economic and infrastructure assistance to the Palestinian Authority. The bill also provides $907 million for expenses and aid related to the December tsunami in Southeast Asia.

- The Associated Press contributed to this report.