Authorization Bill

Senate and House negotiators agreed Wednesday on a $288-billion defense authorization bill that would continue production of the B-2 Stealth bomber, while creating confusion over whether two new planes sought by President Bush will be built. The military programs bill, which is expected to be passed by both houses, would slash Bush's defense spending request for fiscal 1991 by $19 billion and provide $28 billion less than last year's Pentagon spending, adjusted for inflation.

The House on Friday passed a $44-billion, three-year spending authorization bill for NASA that includes President Bush's proposal to place a settlement on the moon and to begin work on a manned expedition to Mars. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration bill includes no money for the moon and Mars programs in the next fiscal year but would spend $444 million on them in fiscal 1992 and $649 million in fiscal 1993. The bill won approval on a voice vote after a brief debate.

Pounded by questions from legislators and opposition from San Diegans, a controversial measure to establish a border bonding authority was unexpectedly held over in a crucial Assembly Ways and Means Committee Wednesday for further study.

Authorities raided two Los Angeles-area medical services Thursday and arrested 10 people as part of a six-month probe into Medi-Cal fraud that has cost the state tens of millions of dollars in illegal orders for adult-size diapers, rubber sheets and similar supplies used to cope with incontinence. As part of a continuing campaign to end what officials describe as one of the biggest Medi-Cal fraud scams, Romero S.

The House Armed Services Committee in Washington on Wednesday approved a massive defense-spending plan that among other things would bar commercial aviation at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. Rep. C. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) sponsored an amendment to the 1990 defense authorization bill that would short-circuit efforts to ease overcrowding at John Wayne Airport by permitting commercial aviation to make joint use of the El Toro military airfield. Commercial flights from the military base have been advocated by some in Orange County as a way to relieve overcrowding at John Wayne, and the El Toro airfield is one of several sites under consideration by the Airport Site Coalition, which is seeking an alternative airport in the county.

The Senate passed and sent to the White House today legislation which would force the Palestine Liberation Organization office in the United States to close and authorize payment of $300 million overdue in U.S. payments to the United Nations. The items were included in a two-year, $9.3-billion authorization bill, which was passed by voice vote in the Senate. The House passed the bill Tuesday, 366 to 49.

By a 305-112 vote, the House passed and sent to the Senate a bill (HR 3400) enabling federal civilian employees to run for office and engage in other partisan political activity on their own time and away from the office. Federal employee unions supported the bill, while the Administration and the civic group Common Cause opposed it. The legislation repeals many of the Hatch Act's bans on partisan activity by civil servants while off duty.

President Reagan, objecting that his authority would be limited by provisions in the NASA authorization bill for 1987, vetoed the measure Friday but noted that his disapproval will not affect current space programs. The President already has signed a catchall spending bill that includes $10.4 billion to run the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in the current fiscal year and to get a start on building a replacement for the space shuttle Challenger.

President Reagan today vetoed the NASA authorization bill for 1987 containing approval for a fourth space shuttle because it contains a provision that he said "would constitute unacceptable interference with my discretion" and create "additional and unnecessary bureaucracy." In issuing the pocket veto, Reagan said NASA's ongoing programs will not be affected because the money for 1987 already has been appropriated.