B-2, F-22 FUNDING IN HOLDING PATTERN; HOUSE, SENATE YET TO RECONCILE PROPOSED DEFENSE BUDGETS.

Byline: Daily News Staff and Wire Services

Northrop Grumman Corp.'s B-2 bomber is among the programs looking for more dollars when House and Senate lawmakers resume negotiations this week on the 1998 U.S. defense budget.

As Congress returns from vacation, members are preparing to reconcile defense budget bills approved by the House and Senate, including how much to spend on Northrop's B-2 bomber and Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F-22 fighter.

The House defense appropriations bill allocates $248.3 billion for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, $1.5 billion more than the Senate bill, and $4.4 billion more than the Clinton administration wanted. The current year's total is $242.4 billion.

The Senate is satisfied with the 21 B-2s already ordered, but the House recommended adding $331 million to the Clinton administration's B-2 bomber request to start production of nine more B-2s, which Northrop Grumman builds in Palmdale.

The administration remains opposed to the House plan.

``The B-2 is an excellent weapon, but the (Defense) Department has decided not to procure additional aircraft,'' the Pentagon said in a statement. ``Including additional B-2s to the current budget will require the sacrifice of other weapon systems.''

Nine more B-2s would cost $13.5 billion. The administration has raised the possibility of a veto of a bill with added B-2 money.

That's why the conventional wisdom is the B-2 funding ``may be one of the issues in which the House gives way,'' said Liesl Heeter, an analyst with the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

However, this is the second time in two years House lawmakers have pushed for more B-2 money, and the last time they got some, although it went to transform a test model into an operational plane rather than for new B-2s. That precedent could sway this year's negotiations.

``The proponents feel much more strongly than the opponents,'' said Loren Thompson, an analyst with Virginia's Alexis de Tocqueville Institute. ``We will probably get a split-the-difference towards the House side.''

Because of the president's veto threat and the differences between the Senate and the House, an aide to U.S. Rep. Howard ``Buck'' McKeon, R-Santa Clarita, says the defense spending negotiations may last past the fiscal year deadline of Sept. 30.

``I think it's going to take a couple weeks,'' said Armando Azarloza, district director for McKeon, a chief B-2 supporter who is on the conference committee that will attempt to resolve differences between the Senate and House.

Several analysts and congressional aides expect B-2 proponents to try to link the funding to the $345 million the Senate wants so Newport News Shipbuilding Inc. can begin buying materials for an aircraft carrier earlier than planned.

The administration requested no such funding, and the House didn't include any in its bill. If the B-2 supporters can hold carrier funding hostage, analysts predict both programs will get added money.

The House is considered likely to prevail on Lockheed Martin's F-22, which is built in the Georgia hometown of Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

The House endorsed the administration's $2.2 billion F-22 request. The Senate recommends cutting nearly $300 million. The Pentagon said reducing F-22 funding could delay the program up to two years.

The Pentagon will spend about $43 billion during the next two decades buying 339 F-22s. The plane has been dogged by problems during the past few months that have delayed its first flight, which was to happen in May. That flight is now expected during the next two weeks.

``The F-22 is supported by both houses,'' Heeter said. ``The basic debate is how should they fund it.''