Chasing the Pickup, Part I: Kerry, Bush, Intelligence & the nuances of appropriation votes


Rishi points out a possible "Pickup" on the Appropriations Bill below. Another Slate Article, from a week-and-a-half ago.

If the following refers to the same Intelligence Spending bill Bush was talking about:

"Another bit of dishonesty is RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie's claim, at a news conference today, that in 1995, Kerry voted to cut $1.5 billion from the intelligence budget. John Pike, who runs the invaluable globalsecurity.org Web site, told me what that cut was about: The Air Force's National Reconnaissance Office had appropriated that much money to operate a spy satellite that, as things turned out, it never launched. So the Senate passed an amendment rescinding the money—not to cancel a program, but to get a refund on a program that the NRO had canceled. Kerry voted for the amendment, as did a majority of his colleagues."

Then the Pickup has been taken care of, and Bush didn't describe it very well. But giving Bush the benefit of the doubt, let us assume that there exists a spending bill cutting 40 programs (not just 1 satellite--though the above quote gives us a good idea of the scale of numbers we're talking about) that Kerry submitted to the clerk or whatever the procedure was, which was either abandoned by him as so many bills are or which in fact was met with the derision and scorn Bush wants us to contemplate. If such a bill exists, I would like to know more about it.