Astronomy of War

Even to Representatives used to dealing with megamillions, it was a staggering figure. At $70.3 billion, the 1968 defense appropriations bill for the year beginning July 1 passed by the House last week was only slightly less than the military budget for 1944, when the U.S. had 11,450,000 men under arms (v. 3,370,000 today), and came close to equaling the accumulated revenues of the entire Federal Government for the first 138 years of its history. In closer perspective, it was only 1.4% less than Congress appropriated for all federal agencies, military and civilian, ten short years ago.

Astronomical as it was, the figure will undoubtedly swell even more before the fiscal year ends next June. Though $20.3 billion was allotted for the war in Viet Nam, many observers in and out of Congress expect that the Defense Department will ask for a supplemental appropriation, particularly if U.S. ground forces in Viet Nam are raised --as seems not unlikely--above the 500,000 level upon which the budget figures are based. Estimates of increased costs range as high as $10 billion.

New Spirit. Even as it approved nearly all of the Administration's request, the House displayed once again the new spirit of independence that it has acquired in the 90th Congress. It dropped entirely funds for Fast Deployment Logistics Ships, key to Defense Secretary Robert McNamara's strategy for rapid worldwide committal of U.S. troops (TIME, March 31), and gave informal approval to an Appropriations Committee directive ordering McNamara to defer further reorganization of the National Guard and Army Reserve.

Though the directive does not have the force of law, it is a stern warning to the Administration to move carefully on Reserve reorganization. In addition, several members vowed that in the future they would have an even bigger say on overall military policy.

In other actions, Congress:

>Passed in the Senate, by a 72-to-23 vote, a bill to extend the draft for four years. The bill, which must still receive final House approval, would, for all practical purposes, continue student deferments up to age 24 and prohibit President Johnson from carrying out his plan to draft 19-year-olds by lot.

> Rejected, in the House, a Senate-passed bill designed to end the dispute between management and shop craft unions of 138 railroads across the nation. While the House accepted a provision extending negotiations for another 90 days, it balked at another section that would force both management and unions to accept compulsory arbitration --always anathema to labor--if negotiations failed.

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