U.S. MILITARY Passage expected for bill on spending

The bill includes a 3.5-percent pay raise for the troops.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A pay raise for military personnel and stronger armor for their humvees were among the items cited by House and Senate members as they rallied behind the troops in debating a record-high defense spending bill.
The House was expected to approve overwhelmingly its version of the bill authorizing $422 billion in defense programs for next year. The Senate was likely to follow suit within a few days.
Reflecting the increased demands on the military from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the bill was $20.9 billion over the amount approved for this fiscal year and up some $125 billion over the past three years.
Both bills emphasize support for the troops, with a 3.5 percent across-the-board pay raise, increases in monthly family separation and hazard duty pay and increased access for reservists to military health-care programs.
Both the House and the Senate would provide around $1 billion to protect forces with better armored humvees and ballistic protection for medium and heavy tactical vehicles.
Additional forces
The House bill requires that the Army add 30,000 forces and the Marines 9,000 over the next three years. "We realize we are going to need more people," said Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
The bills also tack on $25 billion, as requested by the administration, for a down payment on money needed to run operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in the fiscal year beginning in October. There was wide agreement that, with $4 billion to $5 billion being spent every month in Iraq alone, more would be needed later.
There was disagreement over some issues.
The House, as in past years, on Wednesday narrowly defeated a proposed amendment by Rep. Susan Davis, D-Calif., that would have restored the rights of servicewomen and dependents to obtain privately paid abortions at military facilities overseas.
Davis said women must now either return home or risk unsafe abortions in the country where they are stationed. "They must forfeit their privacy, their health and the very liberties they are fighting to protect," she said.
Opponents argued that taxpayer-financed military hospitals shouldn't be used for abortions, even when the woman pays for the procedure. The amendment was defeated 221-202.
Abortions at military hospitals were banned late in the Reagan administration, a decision reversed for several years in the Clinton administration. Since 1996, Congress has allowed military facilities to be used for abortions only in cases of rape, incest, or when the mother's life is in danger.
Investment rules
The Senate, in a 50-49 vote Wednesday, rejected a proposal to tighten rules preventing investments in countries linked to terrorism.
The proposal by Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., would have barred any foreign subsidiaries that are controlled more than 50 percent by an American company from doing business in countries that the State Department considers sponsors of terrorism.
Lawmakers have listed subsidiaries of Halliburton Co., ConocoPhillips and General Electric Co. as among the companies doing business with nations on the department's list of terror sponsors.
There also are expected to be efforts to divert to other purposes the $10 billion in the two bills for a national missile defense system and some $36.5 million for the Energy Department to study "bunker busters" and other new tactical nuclear weapons.
Sens. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., are seeking an amendment that would require President Bush to provide details of his plans to stabilize Iraq.