The House : Committees Budget

By a vote of 254 to 158, the House approved a partial budget of $48 million for its committees in calendar 1985. Later, it will take up a companion measure that will push total 1985 spending for the 25 committees well above $80 million.

This measure (H R 100) did not require Senate approval. The $48 million represents an increase of 4.45% over comparable 1984 expenditures, including a 3.5% increase to cover a pay raise for committee staffers. Most committee spending is for staff salaries, with travel and communications also claiming large outlays.

Supporter Joseph Gaydos (D-Pa.) said the budget measure is “fiscally responsible and fair and equitable” and that the House “through its committee system will be able to effectively and adequately discharge its constitutional obligations.”

Opponent William Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton) said he was “saddened” that House members were increasing spending on themselves while preparing cuts in programs for their constituents. He said this recalls the adage that “the king can do no wrong.”

Members voting yes favored the committee funding resolution.

How They Voted Yea Nay No vote Rep. Beilenson (D) x Rep. Berman (D) x Rep. Fiedler (R) x Rep. Moorhead (R) x Rep. Waxman (D) x

MX Missile

The House, on a vote of 219 to 213, kept the MX missile alive by authorizing $1.5 billion this fiscal year for its continued production. Later, the House gave final congressional approval of the outlay, handing President Reagan a major victory.

Congress now has funded 42 copies of the 96-ton, 10-warhead MX, which is to replace the Minuteman III as the nation’s land-based missile.

Soon it will take up Reagan’s request for $4 billion in fiscal 1986 funds, enough to build 48 more MX missiles. Reagan wants 100 eventually.

Supporter Henry Hyde (R-Ill.), referring to the continuing Soviet-U.S. arms talks in Geneva, said: “You gentlemen on the left may wish to have our negotiators walk around Geneva leading a French poodle on a leash. I prefer a Doberman pinscher, and a hungry Doberman pinscher. It’s called incentive.”

Opponent Les AuCoin (D-Ore.) said the MX “is the Pearl Harbor of our missile fleet” because the Pentagon is unable to securely base it. “It is a dead, fat sitting duck, vulnerable. It tells the Soviet high command, ‘Here is my glass jaw. Come, hit it. Come, knock me out.’ ”

How They Voted Yea Nay No vote Rep. Beilenson (D) x Rep. Berman (D) x Rep. Fiedler (R) x Rep. Moorhead (R) x Rep. Waxman (D) x