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Senate approves Bush's spending package The Senate approved the $87.5 billion spending package Bush proposed for Iraq and Afghanistan By James Kuhnhenn Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT) WASHINGTON — The Senate on Monday sent President Bush an $87.5 billion spending package for Iraq and Afghanistan, capping a month of tu multuous debate in Congress over how much of a burden to place on Ameri can taxpayers for Iraq's reconstruction. The Senate approved the amount by voice vote, avoiding a recorded tally on a bill the public dislikes but that Democ ratic and Republican lawmakers believe is unavoidable given the turmoil in Iraq. "Despite my reservations, I believe that this package will pave the way to the day when our soldiers finally come home from Iraq," Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said in a sentiment echoed by many. With only a handful of senators on the floor, the only audible "no" vote came from Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., one of the war's most vocal critics. The House of Representatives approved the measure Friday. Democratic presidential candidates who serve in Congress were split when they first voted on the proposal last month. Sens. John Kerry of Mass achusetts and John Ldwards of North Carolina voted against the money. Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecti cut voted in favor. In the House, Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio voted against the money last month and Rep. Richard Gephardt voted for it. The bill represents the most ambi tious reconstruction effort of a van quished country since the Marshall Plan in post-World War II Europe. Ad vocates said that without the money, Iraq would be unable to emerge as a democracy and ensure its own security. Even Democrats who voted against the use of force in Iraq a year ago said they had no choice but to support the spending bill. "We must win the war that we start ed because the consequences of fail ure would be catastrophic," Sen. Mark Dayton, D-Minn., said. The Senate action came one day af ter 16 U.S. soldiers died in the deadliest single attack since Iraq was invaded eight months ago. The measure gives Bush practically everything he asked for, lending his management of Iraq policy the aura of a mandate despite widespread congressional misgivings about where his policy is headed. The package includes $64.7 billion for U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and $18.7 billion for re construction of Iraq. The troop funds would pay for $17.8 billion in personnel costs, $39 billion in operation and maintenance and $5.5 billion in purchases, includ ing $239 million for new armored I lumvees at $225,000 per vehicle. The Iraq reconstruction money, which generated the most debate, would provide nearly $3.2 billion for Iraqi police and a new army. It sets aside $5.5 billion to improve electri cal transmission, $2.8 billion for potable water and $493 million for hospitals and clinics. The president beat back efforts by lawmakers to make half the reconstruc tion money a loan rather than a grant; Republican leaders stripped that lan guage from the bill before the final votes. Responding to reports of no-bid contracts and cost overruns by firms in volved in reconstruction, the legisla tion creates the post of a watchdog in spector general to oversee spending by the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Au thority. It requires the inspector general to submit quarterly reports to Con gress, but also gives the president the right to waive the reports, or portions of them, for national security reasons. By avoiding a roll call vote Monday, senators, particularly Democrats, were able to sidestep a vote that many feared would be interpreted as sup port for Bush's Iraq policy. Indeed, several Democrats denounced the de cision to go to war and the adminis tration's course in postwar Iraq. (c) 2003, Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services. Supreme Court to consider permitting HMO lawsuits The Supreme Court may open the door for patients to file lawsuits against their insurance companies By Stephen Henderson Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT) WASIUNGTON — The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to consider whether to permit lawsuits against I IMOs for denying patients care in what one lawyer calls the "world series" of on going litigation over patients' rights. If the justices permit two Texas pa tients to seek big-money awards from HMOs that denied them drugs and care, it could inspire a wave of lawsuits by patients who feel medically wronged by penny-pinching insurers and probably rekindle the debate over a national patients bill of rights. "This is the central issue" in the stmggle between state and federal reg ulation of health insurers, said Larry Lorber, a partner at the Proskauer, Rose law firm and an architect of the 1974 Employers Retirement Income Security Act, which governs state reg ulation of employee benefit plans. "The court has dealt with other insur ance-related cases in recent years, but nothing as directly related to coverage issues as these cases. These are as big as any big-ticket cases you'll find." At issue is the extent to which ERISA protects insurers from state-en forced regulations or lawsuits brought in state courts. Soon after ERISA was passed in 1974, the Supreme Court made clear in a series of opinions that states were not permitted to get involved with employer-sponsored health plans. Patients could sue in federal court to have benefits enforced, and Con gress has always been free to establish uniform federal health-care stan dards. But patients were barred from suing in state courts, where large dam ages could be awarded. But in recent years, as Congress has failed to act, and the shift to managed care has fueled rage over the state of health insurance, lower courts have whittled away at insurers' immunity from state suits. Insurers may not be sued for deci sions about the administration of a plan, but they can be held responsible for medical decisions, some courts have ruled. The Supreme Court also has revisited ERISA's restrictions on state regulation and, in an important case last year, said states should be free to force insurers to open their net works to nonmember physicians. In one of the cases the high court will hear, a woman was told by her insur ance company that she was covered for only one day of hospitalization after surgery. She sued after she was dis charged and developed complications. Patients' rights groups have long pointed to such examples as proof of the need for a change in the system. "People should have a recourse when they feel they are improperly denied care;" said Ron Pollack, executive direc tor of Families USA, a national patient lobby group. "They don't have the au thority and power to contest those deci sions. Now that there might be a right to litigate and secure significant damages, the consumer will be in a better position to challenge arbitrary denials of care." (c) 2003, Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services * Casualties, not peace, prevalent in Iraq, experts say 31 U.S. military casualties in 10 days have prompted expert opinion stating that war activities persist in Iraq By Philip Dine St. Louis Post-Dispatch (KRT) WASH INCI ON - After the deadly events of the past 10 days in Iraq, which have cost the lives of 31 U.S. soldiers — highlighted by Sunday's downing of a ll.S. helicopter — mili tary experts say it is clear that the Unit ed States is engaged in a war as well as the rebuilding of a country. That means that Americans should expea mounting casualties — and that the administration must make it clear that in the foreseeable future U.S. forces will be engaged in battle. This is especially true in the "Sunni triangle," the center of the country where Sad dam Hussein's loyalists are strongest. "There will be a constant stream of casualties. It's inevitable that it's going to get worse in the short run," said Jim Phillips, an expert on terrorism and the Middle East at the I leritage Foun dation which has strongly supported U.S. policy in Iraq. The Iraqi insurgents, a combina tion of Baathist remnants and foreign terrorists, had been surprisingly inef fective, and it was just a matter of time before they found ways to kill more Americans and international aid workers, Phillips said. President Bush needs to take a les son from World War 11 leaders Win ston Churchill and Franklin D. Roo sevelt in talking about the coming sacrifices of blood and treasure, said Clifford May, president of the Foun dation for the Defense of Democra cies which is also a strong supporter of the current administration. "What we're seeing in Iraq today is what the war against terrorism looks like and is likely to look like for a long time to come, and it's the job of polit ical leadership to prepare the public for that reality, for the sacrifices and difficulties that lie ahead," May said. "If you say that what's going on in Iraq is a peacekeeping effort, a recon struction effort, then it's just a terrible failure if people are killed every day. But if you say what's going on is a war, and by the way we're going to build schools while the war's going on, that's a differ ent story. People expert to take casual ties in a war; they don't expert to take casualties in a peacekeeping effort." The creation of realistic expecta tions among the American — and Iraqi — people is central to the out come of the war in Iraq, said James Lindsay, past director of global securi ty at the National Security Council and current vice president of the Council on Foreign Relations. Adversaries in Iraq "are bent on see ing America fail, and their strategy is to make the occupation so costly that the American public will recoil in hor ror," Lindsay said. "The real question is who's going to win that battle between the Bush ad ministration and the rejectionists in Iraq for the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people and the American people." If Americans understand the stakes and accept the related costs, they're more likely to stand by the effort, Lindsay said. And if Iraqis realize that Americans will stick it out, they're more likely to help the United States — improving U.S. prospects. '"Ibis is tough stuff. You're really try ing to manage people's expectations of what's likely to happen," Lindsay said. In that sense, the recent series of killings could persuade more Iraqis that Ameri cans will be driven out — which could become a self-fulfilling prophecy if peo ple stop cooperating with LI.S. forces. National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack said that Bush "has done an excellent job in com municating to the American people both the progress that we have made and the challenges we face in Iraq." Prevailing in Iraq will require not just preparing the American public for a dangerous guerrilla war but also get ting much tougher with insurgents and surrounding countries that support them, said Danielle Pletka, vice presi dent for defense and foreign policy at the American Enterprise Institute. "The crux of the problem is we're fighting a counter-insurgency, and we should be fighting it much more ruth lessly," said Pletka, a former top Re publican staff member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "We need to take the velvet gloves off, send soldiers out on proactive sweeps against Baathists who are liv ing freely throughout Iraq, strike fear in the heart of the rejectionists in a way we have not done so far." But cracking down on the insur gents in a more forceful way risks an tagonizing other Iraqis, said Dan Ben jamin, an expen on the Middle East and terrorism at the Center for Strate gic and International Studies. "It's true that within the Sunni trian gle, the primary issues remain security and not reconstruction, and this is spo radically true elsewhere in the country, with flare-ups from time to time. But this is an extraordinarily difficult kind of phenomenon to deal with — pri marily because we're trying to pacify the region without arousing even more antipathy. That is the classic dilemma of any type of counter-insurgency." Benjamin, former director of count er-terrorism policy at the National Se curity Council, said that while the effort may require more American force, "the more pressure we insert, the more diffi cult it becomes to keep others from be coming disaffected." (c) 2003, St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services. NEWS BRIEF EPD says heightened patrol helped reduce incidents The Eugene Police Department de ployed an extra 34 patrol officers and five sergeants Friday evening in prepa ration for Halloween. Mischief during the night was kept to a minimum, which was partially due to the increased patrol, EPD spokeswoman Kerry Delf said. Fifty-two people were cited with having an open container and 34 were cited with minor in possession of alco hol in the campus area, according to an EPD press release. "We were hoping things would go well, and it appears that they did," Delfsaid. Delf said that even though there were no riots, there was enough un derage drinking to keep officers busy throughout the night. Other citations in the campus area included six traffic infractions, WWW four citations for littering and three citations for urinating in public. One citation was given for interfer ing with a police officer, one for driving under the influence and one for criminal mischief in the second degree. In the West University neighbor hood, officers cited one person with urinating in public. Extra officers were deployed partial ly because Halloween was on a Friday. The last time Halloween fell on a weekend was in 1998, when people took to the streets and about a dozen arrests were made. — Ali Shauehnessv Oregon Daily Emerald P.O. Box 3159, Eugene OR 97403 The Oregon Daily Emerald is pub lished daily Monday through Friday during the school year by the Oregon Daily Emerald Publishing Co. Inc., at the University ot Oregon, Eugene, Oregon.The Emerald operates inde pendently ot the University with of tices in Suite 300 of the Erb Memorial Union. The Emerald is private prop 7 The unlawful removal or use of pers is prosecutable by law. NEWSROOM — (541)346-5511 Editor in chief: Brad Schmidt Managing editor: Jan Tobias Montry Freelance editor: Aimee Rudin News editors: Jennifer Marie Bear, Ayisha Yahya Senior news re porters. A. 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