HOUSE LEAVES B-2S UP TO CLINTON; BUDGET PLAN GIVES PRESIDENT OPTIONS FOR SPENDING.

Byline: John Diamond The Associated Press 

The House approved a $247.5 billion defense appropriations bill Thursday that would effectively kill future production of the B-2 bomber and give President Clinton a way to extend the Bosnia troop deployment.

Heading off a veto battle, House and Senate negotiators who crafted the bill gave way on Bosnia and the B-2, two of the most contentious issues. And with new spending limits imposed by the budget-balancing effort, the defense spending increases added to the bill by the Republican-controlled Congress are more modest than planned.

The bill, passed 356-65, requires a Senate vote before going to Clinton.

It still contains language cutting off funding for the Bosnia troop deployment by June 30 and allowing the president to spend money expanding the B-2 bomber fleet, assembled in Palmdale by Northrop Grumman Corp.

But companion provisions give Clinton an escape hatch on both issues.

Clinton can decide to spend the B-2 money repairing and modernizing the existing fleet of 21 B-2s - as he undoubtedly would - given his firm opposition to buying any more of the $2 billion radar-evading planes.

The 21st and final B-2 bomber under construction at U.S. Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale is scheduled to be delivered to the Air Force before Dec. 31, Northrop Grumman spokesman Ed Smith said.

But modification work to improve their earlier bombers' computer software and weapons capabilities will keep the plant going through the year 2000.

About 2,500 people were employed at the B-2 bomber plant as of the end of August, and another 3,500 at Northrop Grumman's Pico Rivera facility. The total number at both plants should drop to about 2,500 by the year 2000, with most of those in Palmdale, Smith said.

The House wanted to spend $331 million as a down payment on nine more B-2 bombers, with a total price in the coming years of billions of dollars.

Senators have agreed with the administration in opposing more B-2s.

On Bosnia, Clinton could remove the funding cutoff merely by coming to Capitol Hill by next May 15 and explaining why and how the Bosnia mission must be extended.

The overall bill would add $3.6 billion to Clinton's request for defense spending in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. It represents a $5.1 billion increase over this year's defense spending level. It also includes a 2.8 percent military pay raise.

While Rep. C.W. ``Bill'' Young, R-Fla., chairman of the House Appropriations national security committee, called the bill a ``strong statement'' for defense despite budget limits, liberals such as Reps. Barney Frank, D-Mass., and John Conyers, D-Mich., opposed the measure.

``Ladies and gentlemen, it's too much dough,'' Conyers said. ``We've got to cut it down.''