Hard Choices on the Hill

A close call for the MX; censure for Studds and Crane

Its first test flight in June, from California to the South Pacific, was impressively smooth. But the MX missile's voyage through Congress last week was a rough one, and the Administration needed all its considerable lobbying skills to save the funding for the beleaguered weapon. Shortly before the House voted 220 to 207 to authorize $2.5 billion to build 27 missiles, the President and Vice President were still calling wavering Congressmen. "Those two are dynamite when it comes to lobbying," said an admiring White House aide after the narrow victory.

It was a crucial win for the Administration, which plans to deploy the 96-ton, ten-warhead missiles in modified Minuteman silos in 1986. "We need the MX," President Reagan urged Congress in a letter, "not only for force modernization but to keep the Soviets moving at the negotiation tables." Expected Senate approval of the funding was held up by a filibuster by Democrat Gary Hart of Colorado, a presidential candidate, who lambasted the missile as a "vulnerable, destabilizing, first-strike weapon."

The close vote in the House reflected a significant shift in sentiment. In May, 91 Democrats voted to restore research and development money for the MX. But last week, only 73 Democrats voted to authorize production money. The defectors, including Majority Leader Jim Wright, were under intense pressure from the Democratic caucus and nuclear-freeze groups. Many Democrats question whether the Administration is sincere about bargaining for arms reductions. "The President himself has shown some flexibility, but it hasn't trickled down to his advisers," said Democratic Congressman Dan Glickman of Kansas.

A provision was added reducing the first batch of missiles to 21. The MX will face another tough test in the fall, when the 1984 defense appropriations bill comes before Congress. Said

Tennessee Congressman Albert Gore Jr.: "There has got to be some movement on the negotiations."

Another legislative battle on the Administration's agenda has been sidestepped. Illinois Congressman Dan Rostenkowski, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, revealed that Congress would not try to pass a major tax bill this year to offset the projected $200 billion federal deficit. He said there was no point in drafting such a bill, since the Administration is no longer pushing its plan to propose contingency tax measures that would go into effect in late 1985 if needed to reduce the burgeoning deficit. The gathering economic recovery reduces the need for new taxes. Even so, dropping the contingency tax will increase the projected 1986 deficit from $154.6 billion to $196.2 billion.

In other action last week, the House was grim as it formally censured Republican Daniel Crane of Illinois and Democrat Gerry Studds of Massachusetts for sexual misconduct with 17-year-old congressional pages. The House Ethics Committee had recommended that the two be given only reprimands, the lightest possible punishment. But prodded by conservative Congressmen, the full House opted for a harsher penalty. Under censure, a lawmaker is stripped of any committee chairmanship; Studds lost his position as head of the subcommittee on the Coast Guard.

In the investigation into how Reagan's political advisers got Jimmy Carter's debate briefing book, Michigan Congressman Donald Albosta, angry at White House refusals to give his subcommittee total access to all campaign files, threatened to use his subpoena power. The White House offered Albosta copies of documents turned up by the FBI, and said it would provide wider access only if Albosta also looks into dirty tricks in the Carter campaign. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.