Defense News reported Monday that both the Democrat-controlled House and the U.S. Senate agreed to trim funds that the White House had requested to build a base for 10 ABM interceptors in Poland to guard against some future possible Iranian ballistic missile attack against Western Europe or the U.S. mainland.

Previously the Senate Democrats had said they would fund a sister radar array base in the Czech Republic to track such missiles but would eliminate entirely the funds to build the controversial Polish base, which is fiercely opposed by Russia.

However, in the latest twist in the convoluted funding and decision-making process on the bases, the Democrats have agreed to fund building both bases after all, while still trimming the funds available for them. The House reduced the administration's request to build the two bases by $139 million from $310 million to $171 million. The Senate cut half that amount, $85 million, approving $225 million for the program.

The differences in the two pieces of legislation will be resolved in a routine reconciliation conference between the House and the Senate. But it now looks extremely unlikely that the funds for the Polish interceptor base will be eliminated after all. And even the smaller cut proposed by the Senate may be further reduced.

The latest Democratic retreat on the issue in both the House and the Senate is consistent with the party's reluctance to press or oppose President Bush in any significant way on his determination to keep large U.S. ground forces in Iraq for the indefinite future.

If the United States enters a military confrontation with Iran in the near future, either over Iran's massive nuclear development program or because of Iran's hostility to Israel, Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill appear to want to avoid being on the record as opposing a program that could defend both the United States and its European NATO allies from the threat of Iranian nuclear attack.

However, the decision to allow initial funding for the European-based BMD facilities to go ahead also looks certain to dangerously escalate tensions with Russia, which remains fiercely opposed to both bases. Russian leaders have said they may retaliate by deploying Iskander-M ground-to-ground high-accuracy intermediate-range missiles in the Kaliningrad region or oblast to target the new bases and put Poland and the Czech Republic under threat, too.

BMD sails through Congress

The Democratic retreat on the BMD bases issue was part of a more general retreat by them on cutting funds for the overall National Missile Defense program. Defense News reported that in all, the House only trimmed $298 million from the administration's $8.5 billion overall request for the new fiscal year. The Senate proposed cutting only marginally more -- $310 million. And even these cuts may be further reduced in the reconciliation process between the House and the Senate over their different versions of the legislation.

These developments confirm our observation in these columns several months ago that in reality, a largely unanticipated bipartisan consensus on ballistic missile defense had developed on Capitol Hill, especially in the Senate. That is good news for longtime Republican proponents of BMD. The bad news for the GOP, as we have previously pointed out, is that this highly significant long-term shift by the Democrats robs the Republicans of BMD as a major national campaign issue.

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