Bush will veto jobs, health bill

WASHINGTON — A bill filled with money for job training, health and education faces a veto from President Bush, who complains that Democratic add-ons have made it too expensive.

The bill, containing $152 billion for social programs including special education, community health centers, Head Start and health research, easily passed the House on Thursday by a 276-140 vote. The tally wouldn't be big enough to overcome a promised veto from the White House, which calls it "irresponsible and excessive" for busting Bush's budget by almost $13 billion.

Panel OKs expansion of insurance for kids

Brushing aside threats of a presidential veto, a Senate committee on Thursday approved a five-year, $35 billion expansion of a children's health-insurance program that would be financed through higher tobacco taxes.

A majority of Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee joined all of the committee's Democrats in voting to reauthorize the State Children's Health Insurance Program. The program subsidizes insurance for children and some adults with family incomes too high for Medicaid but not high enough to afford private insurance. The vote was 17-4.

The additional spending the committee approved would bring total SCHIP funding to $60 billion over five years, double what the administration has proposed. Lawmakers said the $35 billion expansion would allow 6.6 million people to maintain their current health coverage, and would provide coverage for an additional 3.2 million uninsured children.

Pardon unlikely for border guards

President Bush suggested Thursday that he was leaning against a pardon for two border guards convicted last year in the shooting of an unarmed drug smuggler.

The case has become a cause celebre among conservative talk-radio hosts who have denounced the verdict.

"I know it's an emotional issue but people need to look at the facts. These men were convicted by a jury of their peers after listening to the facts" as presented by U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, Bush told a woman who asked about a possible pardon at a town-hall style meeting in Nashville.

Bush noted that the prosecutor in the Texas case was "a dear friend" and said, "He is a fair guy. He is an evenhanded guy."

Bush also challenged critics of his stalled immigration-overhaul efforts, suggesting that failure to pass a guest-worker program could trigger a labor shortage in the United States.

Nuclear contractor pleads not guilty

A contract employee at a nuclear-material cleanup site pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges that he stole classified equipment used in enriching uranium and sold it to an undercover FBI agent posing as an official for the French government.

Roy Lynn Oakley, 65, of Roane County, Tennessee, surrendered to authorities on Thursday.

None of the data made it out of the country or was transmitted to criminal or terrorist groups, the Justice Department said.

Oakley was charged with two counts of possessing hardware used in uranium enrichment. He could face a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.

His lawyer, Herb Moncier, said Oakley never took anything important from the site, and contended he was being prosecuted for selling three to five pieces of broken pipe that would have otherwise been thrown away.

Moncier said Oakley sold the rods to an undercover federal agent who told Oakley that he represented the French Embassy, but didn't have ill intentions.

Seattle Times news services