Wednesday, December 30, 1998; Page A18

NEWS from Capitol Hill and the Pentagon only weeks ago was literally chilling: Shelters across the country heard that a 10-year-old federal program for distributing surplus Army blankets for homeless people was ending. The Defense Department program had permitted the release of 500,000 surplus blankets to homeless shelters and distribution centers. In recent years the supplies of surplus blankets had run out; but the Pentagon managed to secure an annual $3 million appropriation from Congress to make and distribute blankets. Then came the grim word last year: Congress cut money for many non-defense-related items.

It didn't take long for shelters' supplies of blankets to dwindle, since private contributions could not begin to match the scale of the federal program. In the District alone, officials estimated that shelters would have 20,000 fewer blankets. But a glitch came to the rescue. Some fine-print readers of the Defense Department's appropriation found a fortuitous hole: The House language that was to eliminate the blanket program had itself been eliminated in the final House-Senate conference report. Last Wednesday, Pentagon experts in money-juggling found funds to keep the program going for this and another several years.

Whether the Pentagon should be in the blanket business is a question for another (warmer) day. But the cost is hardly horrendous, and it's not as if the blankets are piling up in warehouses. The shelters make good use of every blanket they receive and -- Pentagon help or not -- these agencies can use still more from private donors. "You look everywhere you can," said the Rev. John Steinbruck, retired pastor of the Luther Place Memorial Church. "We're beggars. We will gather in the the crumbs from whatever table they fall."