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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 10, 1989)
he Battalion ORLD & NATION 11 Triday, November 10,1989 Defense bill passes House New $305 billion legislation cuts Bush’s Star Wars request WASHINGTON (AP) — The House on Thursday approved a ^ $305 billion defense bill that would ""l cut President Bush’s request for Star ^ 5 Wars by $ l. I billion, the first budget reduction in the program in six “I’m very unhappy with the final product. We made too severe a cut In the SDI budget line,” said William Dickinson, R-Alabama, ranking Re publican on the House Armed Serv ices Committee, about the Strategic Defense Initiative, popularly known as Star Wars “We cut in the wrong places. We played politics with this bill,” Dickin son, who nevertheless voted to adopt it,said. By a vote of 236-172, the Demo- cratic-controlled House adopted leg islation to provide many of the funds Bush sought for the MX and Midg- etman nuclear missiles and the B-2 stealth bomber and restore money for four of the 10 conventional pro grams the president tried to kill. The bill goes to the Senate for I consideration. Among the provisions is $4.3 bil- I lion for the B-2, $430 million less than the administration requested M for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. The bat-winged aircraft has come jj-l under attack on Capitol Hill for its ■ ex P ens i ve pricetag of about $530 I million a copy. The bill provides money for two bombers in fiscal 1990, one less than the administra tion sought. However, the legislation accepts Bush’s proposal for compo nents for five bombers in fiscal 1991. The bill provides $3.8 billion for Star Wars, about $279 million less than was spent in fiscal 1989 and the first decrease since President Rea gan proposed the anti-missile shield six years ago. Bush had sought $4.9 billion for the program. Approximately $1.1 billion is in- I’m very unhappy with the final product. We made too severe a cut in the SDI budget line. We cut in the wrong places. We played politics with this bill.” — William Dickinson, Representative eluded for two land-based nuclear missiles: the multiple-warhead, rail- garrison MX and the single-war head, truck-based Midgetman. The bill trims about $150 million from the administration’s request for the two weapons and adds House lan guage imposing a 50-missile cap on the MX. Both proponents and opponents found fault with the bill, but grud gingly accepted the result of nearly two months of contentious negotia tions between the House and Senate on widely divergent defense blueprints approved this past sum mer. The legislation continues two pro grams — the Navy’s F-14D Tomcat jet fighter and the AH IP helicopter —for one more year, and postpones a decision on the Marine Corps’ V- 22 Osprey and the Phoenix missile. The bill accepts the administra tion’s plan to kill six other programs, including the SSN-688 submarine, the F-15 aircraft and the M-88 tank recovery vehicle. The Osprey, the tilt-rotor aircraft that takes off like a helicopter but can fly like a plane, will receive about $255 million in research and devel opment money in fiscal 1990 but no funds for procurement. The legislation includes money for 18 F-14Djet fighters but requires the manufacturer, Grumman Corp., to sign a termination agreement ending all future production. “This is the last deficit-driven de fense budget. What we’re likely to face next year is the first in a series of (Soviet President Mikhail) Gorba chev-driven defense budgets,”Rep. Les Aspin, D-Wis., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said. The bill trims about $500 million from the troubled Trident II missile, provides $900 million of the $1.1 bil lion the administration requested for the Advanced Tactical Fighter plane and adds $848 million for the Na tional Guard and Reserves. MSC /' |Democrats beam after elections | as Wilder, Dinkins win offices; | mull over Jesse Jackson’s role 1 lini, il? WASHINGTON (AP) — The Democratic Party es tablishment on Capitol Hill stood beaming Thursday [with L. Douglas Wilder and David Dinkins, clearly pleased to have mainstream elected officials moving into a spotlight once held exclusively by Jesse Jackson. Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, D-Maine, House Speaker Thomas S. Foley, D-Wash., and the en tire Democratic leadership of Congress smiled broadly as Wilder and Dinkins stepped forward at a news con ference in an ornate room off the Senate floor. “Americans are prepared to accept candidates on the basis of their individual talent,” Mitchell said. Wilder and Dinkins needed strong support from white voters, and they got it by concentrating on run ning campaigns that stressed mainstream positions on issues. Both campaigned as fiscal conservatives who were tough on law and order questions. And both kept Jesse Jackson at arms length. Never totally comfortable with Jackson, establish ment Democrats dive for cover when he becomes in volved with left-wing leaders around the world. Only a week before the 1989 elections, President Daniel Or tega of Nicaragua called Jackson to ask him to intervene with President Bush to obtain support for disbanding the Contra forces. Democratic Party leaders can rest easy, aware that neither Wilder nor Dinkins is likely to get any phone calls from Ortega. Other 1989 election winners were present — House members who won contests throughout the year to fill vacancies — but most of the attention was on Wilder and Dinkins, who scored racial breakthroughs on Tues day. While his Republican opponent had yet to concede and a recount was likely, Wilder was claiming victory in the race for governor of Virginia, a triumph that would make him the first black elected governor of any state. Dinkins is the first black elected mayor of New York City. I In both cases, the margin of victory was smaller than many polls had predicted, a result that prompted spec ulation that race remains a potent issue in American politics. Democratic Party chairman Ronald H. Brown, the Tirst black to head a major party, dismissed the specu lation as ridiculous. “All the questions now are, ‘Why didn’t Wilder do better?’ and ‘Why didn’t Dinkins do better?’ It’s a ridic ulous question,” he said. “The fact is that we have elected a Democratic mayor of the city of New York, who happens to be black, and we’ve elected a Demo cratic governor of the state of Virginia, who happens to be black.” irot Lasers hit crewman U.S. suspects Soviets in incident WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials suspect the Soviets of shooting lasers at American planes in the Pacific recently, damaging the eyesight of an Air Force crewman in one of four in cidents, Pentagon officials said Thursday. An agreement signed last sum mer by top U.S, and Soviet mili tary officials is designed to avoid such military encounters, but it does not go into effect until Jan. 1. Pentagon officials said pri vately they were dismayed that such incidents could be continu ing in the meantime. At a Pentagon briefing, spokes man Pete Williams said two Soviet vessels “may have” aimed lasers at U.S. aircraft on Oct. 17, Oct. 28 and in two separate incidents on Nov. 1 over waters off Hawaii. Asked whether the matter af fected U.S.-Soviet ties, which have been improving, the spokes man said only, “I will not charac terize the incident beyond de scribing it.” Other Pentagon officials said the matters are being investi gated. One senior official, comment ing on condition of anonymity, said laser activity is suspected be cause of past incidents and be cause of descriptions provided by the military personnel involved in the most recent cases. Williams said he could not identify a Soviet vessel involved. Pentagon sources said, however, that it was a military ship that was in the waters where Soviets have traditionally observed the splash downs for their missile tests. U.S. planes traditionally ob serve the movements of such So viet ships, the sources said. Lasers are sometimes used as rangefinders to target enemy air craft. The afflicted U.S. crewman — a loadmaster aboard an HC-130 aircraft — suffered disruption of his color vision, headaches and other visual problems and is un der medical evaluation, the Pen tagon sources said. The crewman had been wear ing “laser eye protection” gear at the time, and U.S. officials are also investigating why the dam age occured despite that equip ment, the sources said. In 1987, the copilot of an Air Force WC-135 suffered vision problems when she observed a nearby U.S. Navy reconnaissance aircraft “illuminated” by a laser that was determined to have come from the Soviet ship Chu kotka. The vessel was operating off Hawaii, near the target zone of a Soviet missile test. The Air Force said the crew member’s vision was affected for about 10 minutes and that the damage was not permanent. Study says Alzheimers on upswing Number of Americans affected much higher CHICAGO (AP) — More than one in 10 people over age 65 may have Alzheimer’s disease, says a study which suggests the number of Americans with the devastating ill ness may be 1.5 million higher than previously estimated. A study of 3,626 elderly people in East Boston, Mass., revealed that rates of Alzheimer’s grew rapidly higher with advancing age, soaring to nearly half of those over age 85, researchers at Harvard Medical School said. Of people ages 65 to 74, 3 percent had “probable” Alzheimer’s disease, compared with 18.7 percent of those 75 to 84 and 47.2 percent of those over 85, the study said. All told, 10.3 percent of those over age 65 had “probable” Alz heimer disease, the researchers said. The Harvard study was funded in part by the National Institute on Ag ing, and its finding prompted the in stitute to revise its estimate of how many people in the United States suffer from Alzheimer’s — which robs people of their memories and their ability to function — from 2.5 million to 4 million. Findings were published in Fri day’s Journal of the American Medi cal Association. ATION Center univeR: BOWLING GAMES present OPEN INVITATION ALL-U CHAMPIONSHIPS % Registration & Fee in MSC Basement by Friday, Nov. 10 at 2:00 p.m. Nominal entrance fee Call 845-1515 for information Winners advance to the ACUI Regionals in Houston Grads, Vets & Meds Aggieland pictures are being taken November 6-10 at AR PHOTOGRAPHY 707 Texas Ave, Suite 120B Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm Juniors this week is your last chance to be shot! A4 — JT4> <C REGRETS: BELLY JOE ROYAL has Cancelled the remainder of his fall tour due to health reasons. ANNOUNCES: ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL win Complete the triple bill with: RESTLESS HEART & BAILLIE AND THE BOYS FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1989 G. Rollie White Coliseum 8:00 p.m. The Advantage is yours with a Battalion Classified. Call 845-0569