J Bennett Johnston

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday approved a bill appropriating almost $300 billion for the Pentagon after turning back an effort to limit President Reagan's anti-missile program. The measure gives the Defense Department $299.6 billion for this fiscal year, substantially below the $320 billion originally requested by Reagan. An attempt by Sen. J. Bennett Johnston (D-La.

The Times in its editorial, "Don't Let All This Rain Fool You" (Feb. 11), has once again applied its standard criteria to the evaluation of any proposed policy initiative. If it's bad for farmers, it must be good. In supporting Sen. J. Bennett Johnston's (D-La.) so-called "compromise" bill that would make water a commodity instead of a public resource, you are calling for the creation of a new endangered species, the California farmer. There is no way a farmer can afford to pay what an urban area can pay for water.

The Democratic-controlled Senate, in a major reversal, today restored $600 million to President Bush's "Star Wars" program as part of the $288-billion military spending bill. The Senate responded to the pleas of several legislators, including leading defense figures, who said they are worried that continuing cuts in the space-based defense initiative would cause irreversible damage to the program. By a vote of 53 to 47, the Senate adopted an amendment requiring that $4.

Three formerly undecided Southern Democratic senators announced today that they are opposing Robert H. Bork's Supreme Court nomination, and one of them declared the nominee's defeat "an inevitability." Three-term Sen. J. Bennett Johnston of Louisiana, known as a conservative Democrat, said he expects an anti-Bork steamroller among Southern Democrats. His announcement followed those of two-term Sen. David Pryor (D-Ark.) and freshman Sen. Terry Sanford (D-N.C.).

As it is, the U.S. Forest Service has not won many awards for protection of the environment. And if James E. Cason is confirmed by the U.S. Senate as overseer of the nation's 191 million acres of forest lands, the prospects for any improvement would be bleak indeed. Therefore, the Bush Administration should withdraw Cason's nomination as assistant secretary of agriculture for natural resources and the environment. If it will not do so, the nomination should be rejected by the Senate.

President Bush on Monday cited weekend public opinion surveys that show that far more Americans believe Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas' denials of sexual harassment than believe law professor Anita Faye Hill, his accuser. "I'm very pleased with the way the support all across the country is holding strong for Judge Thomas," President Bush said as he arrived at the White House after a weekend at Camp David, Md.

Launching "Star Wars" anti-missile defenses into orbit could cost up to $1 trillion, depending on countermeasures taken by the Soviet Union, according to a congressional study being released today. "These results have disturbing implications," the Congressional Research Service said in a report that estimated the cost of launching a system but not its development and manufacture.

Almost half the U.S. Senate sent a letter to Environmental Protection Agency chief Carol Browner Wednesday urging her to drop a proposal to guarantee the use of ethanol in a big chunk of the market for anti-smog gasoline. The EPA made the proposal in December, even though its own scientists found that corn-based ethanol could actually bring more smog when it's added to gasoline in warm weather.

Enough is enough. In the hope of derailing the California Desert Protection Act in the fading days of the congressional session, a small band of Republican senators is engaged in yet another stalling tactic. Eight years have passed since the bill was introduced. It has been compromised to meet almost every objection. It is favored by the vast majority of Californians and endorsed by nearly every newspaper in the state, and it passed both houses of Congress with bipartisan support.

Farmers, who use 80% of California's water to produce 10% of its income, have won another skirmish over allocation of supplies diminished by drought. But the struggle over scarce water is not ended, merely transplanted from the U.S. Senate to the House, where the next encounter will take place on a more level battleground. At stake last week were two plans for reforming the federal Central Valley Project, which delivers about 8 million acre-feet of subsidized water a year, mostly for irrigation.