The Senate fully funded a $108 million request—listed in the bill report as an earmark sponsored by the President—for a “Midcourse Radar” missile defense site in the Czech Republic. A $132 million request for another “Interceptor” site received only $26 million. The House gave the midcourse radar only $48.5 million and the interceptor $52.6 million.

 

The Bush Administration has worked for years to establish two missile defense sites in Eastern Europe, ostensibly to take out ballistic missiles launched by Iran. The Czech Republic agreed a month ago to construct a site for the midcourse radar, though the project must still pass the Czech parliament. Poland is holding out on installing 10 missile interceptors on its soil, probably until the U.S. hands over enough cash to make it worthwhile. The sites will cost an estimated $4 billion to complete.

 

Congress withheld funding for the European sites in the past out of concerns that the interceptor technology remains unproven (see this excellent commentary by Center for Defense Information analyst Victoria Samson ). This year, the Senate added language in the bill report that holds back funds until each government ratifies agreements with the U.S.

 

Committees have started listing White House requests for specific projects as presidential earmarks. Clearly, the White House wants to lock in funding for the controversial projects before Bush leaves office. But it was Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) who took credit for securing the funding in the Senate. Hutchison works on space issues as ranking member of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, and her district includes Fort Bliss, where some missile defense weapons are located. So why wasn’t Hutchison listed as a co-sponsor on the earmark? Maybe she didn’t want to be enshrined in print as supporting Star Wars deals while one is still in limbo and the ink barely dry on the other.