U.S. Senator fears airline aid could delay war funds WASHINGTON (Reuters) =97 The chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee= =20 said Monday he feared that including airline relief in legislation to fund= =20 the Iraq war could "hold up" congressional approval of the funding package.= =20 Sen. Ted Stevens is among top lawmakers scheduled to meet President Bush at= =20 the White House later Monday to discuss initial funding for the war =97 an= =20 emergency spending package that will need congressional approval. The=20 Alaska Republican, speaking to reporters in a Capitol Hill hallway, said he= =20 did not know what the administration's proposed overall price tag for the=20 war would be, or whether the White House wanted to include aid to the=20 airlines whose financial woes have been worsened by the conflict. Asked if= =20 he personally favored aid to the airlines, Stevens replied, "I do," but=20 added: "Whether or not it should go in this package and hold it up, I don't= =20 know. "Once you start adding things, to presidential presentations, it's=20 cumulative. It starts picking up. I'm not sure we should do that on this=20 one. We'll just have to wait and see," he said. In a further blow to=20 airline industry hopes, a White House spokesman said aid to airlines=20 affected by a wartime travel slump would not be on the agenda of another=20 White House meeting Monday =97 a session of the National Economic Council. The biggest U.S. air carriers have said they could face up to $4 billion a= =20 quarter in losses from a prolonged war with Iraq, and the White House has=20 been discussing including aid for the industry in its wartime spending=20 request. But the White House position remains unclear and on Capitol Hill,= =20 aides to lawmakers say they believe the administration is divided. Airlines= =20 have a lot of supporters in Congress. Sen. Tom Daschle, the leader of the=20 Senate minority, said Monday he favored including it in the Iraq war=20 spending package. "I think it probably needs to be (in the wartime spending= =20 package). I haven't talked to anybody about where it would go, but I think= =20 its fairly urgent. Something I think is going to have to be done sooner=20 rather than later," the South Dakota Democrat told reporters. But there are= =20 also lawmakers who oppose helping the industry again so soon after Congress= =20 approved a $15 billion package of direct aid and loan guarantees, shortly=20 after the hijack attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Stevens stressed he did not=20 know details of the White House wartime funding request. "I don't know the= =20 bottom line or the top line," he said. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.thehummingbirdonline.com TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************