Senate Clears Emergency Veterans Budget

WASHINGTON - The Senate sent President Bush a $1.5 billion increase to the budget for veterans health care programs Friday as it cleared the first spending bill for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.

The move ends an embarrassing episode for the administration, which repeatedly miscalculated the needs of veterans and used outdated budget models when fashioning estimates for Congress.

The funds, which close a gap for the current budget year, were added to a $26.3 billion bill for next year's budget for the Interior Department. The measure passed by a 99-1 vote.

The underlying budget bill generally fits within Bush's budget outlines as it cuts almost $700 million from current levels. But when Congress returns from its summer recess in September, lawmakers are sure to test the president's resolve to cut almost 1 percent from domestic agencies whose budgets Congress funds each year.
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The underlying Interior measure also contains $10 million to subsidize a memorial to Martin Luther King Jr. on the National Mall on a 4-acre site next to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial. The funds were sought by Sen. Robert Byrd (news, bio, voting record), D-W.Va., and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Thad Cochran, R-Miss.

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