AP 27 Sep 95 18:02 EDT V0159 Copyright 1995 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in this news report may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of the Associated Press. Lawmakers Tap Spy 'Slush Fund' WASHINGTON (AP) -- A defense bill awaiting final passage this week would cut into a $1 billion-plus "slush fund" squirreled away for use by one of the nation's most secretive agencies. Senior lawmakers said Wednesday that the unspent account had piled up under the control of the National Reconnaissance Office, a super-secret spy satellite and eavesdropping agency that is developing a major new headquarters in suburban Virginia. Although the exact amount is classified, Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, chairman of the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee, said the amount was "well over $1 billion." "We stopped that, eliminating any possibility that that money could be used" without congressional permission," Stevens said in an interview. Much like the agency itself, the portion of the defense appropriations bill that carries NRO money is classified. But Stevens and Rep. Bill Young, R-Fla., chairman of the House Appropriations national security subcommittee, said the legislation would specifically shift some of the money to other agencies and restrict how the NRO could spend what remains. Much of the money had accumulated because the reconnaissance office had not spent all it had been allotted by Congress in previous years to built a mammoth headquarters and research center outside of Washington. The money carried over, Young said, "was like a slush fund" that could be spent with little congressional oversight. Young said the appropriations bill reallocates most of the money to other uses, a move that drew some criticism Wednesday at a House Rules Committee hearing. "This was money that was out there that you didn't know was there and you spent it" on other things, said Rep. Anthony Beilenson, D-Calif., a Rules Committee member. Young countered that the defense appropriations bill that emerged from House-Senate negotiations was $746 million less than the measure that originally passed the House earlier this year. Although public discussion of the fund surfaced only recently, Young said he has known about the unspent money since last spring when members of the House Intelligence Committee were first briefed on the issue. A joint statement issued by Stevens and Young indicated that despite the cuts in funding available to the NRO, "we are recommending sufficient funding to fully support the vital national intelligence programs managed" by the agency.