23 January 2002
Bush Wants to Increase Military Spending by $48 Billion for War on Terror
(Says money essential to win against the global terrorism network)
(850)
By Wendy S. Ross
Washington File White House Correspondent
Washington -- President Bush will ask the U.S. Congress to approve
nearly $50 billion more on military spending for the war on terrorism
in the coming fiscal year.
Bush gave the first details of the $2 trillion budget for fiscal year
2003, beginning October 1, in a January 23 speech to the Reserve
Officers Association.
"Our fight against terrorism began in Afghanistan, but it's not going
to end there," Bush said.
"We still face a shadow enemy who dwells in the dark corners of the
Earth. Dangers and sacrifices lie ahead, yet America will not rest, we
will not tire until every terrorist group of global reach has been
found, has been stopped, and has been defeated."
"Our first priority is the military, the highest calling. To protect
the people is to strengthen our military, and that will be the
priority of the budget I submit to the United States Congress."
The administration will send its budget plan to Congress February 4.
The Bush budget will ask Congress to provide the Pentagon an increase
of $48 billion, bringing that budget for the new fiscal year within
range of $380 billion. If approved by the House and Senate the funds
would amount to the largest increase in military spending in 20 years,
Bush said.
The extra money would fund another pay raise for military service
personnel and permit the acquisition of more precision weapons and the
building of missile defenses.
"Buying these tools may put a strain on the budget but we will not cut
corners when it comes to the defense of our great land," said Bush.
To keep Americans safe from terrorists at home, the President said his
budget will also increase funding for Homeland Defense initiatives
that will permit the hiring of 30,000 new federal airport security
workers, and 300 more FBI agents.
In addition, he said, the Homeland Security budget will provide for
the purchase of new equipment to improve the safety of the mail and
protect the men and women who deliver it; a major research program to
combat the threat of bioterrorism; modernization of the nation's
public health laboratories so they can better detect and treat
outbreaks of disease; anti-terrorist training for state and local fire
fighters, police and rescue workers; and steps to better secure the
nation's borders.
President Bush "thinks it is absolutely essential to win the war on
terrorism and to protect the country that Congress takes action to
give the defense budget the boost that it needs and deserves," White
House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer told reporters.
He said President Bush's priorities in the budget he proposes will be
these:
"To increase defense spending so that our nation can win the war on
terrorism and so that our men and women have the tools they need to
finish the job;
"Two, to protect the homeland -- homeland security -- because the
President believes the best way to protect the economy is to prevent
another attack on our country;
"And thirdly, to take care of vital domestic needs. And to do so,
there will be a need to limit the growth, to increase spending more
slowly, if you will, on many of the issues on the domestic home front,
recognizing that for the last several years there have been major
increases in many of these domestic accounts," Fleischer said.
Earlier in the day January 23, Bush met for half an hour at the White
House with Republican and Democratic leaders of Congress.
The President spent about half the meeting talking about the domestic
agenda and about half talking about the war, Fleischer said.
"The President believes that things have gone very, very well in
achieving our missions in Afghanistan. And the President looks forward
to his State of the Union, where the President is also going to
explain to the American people how this is a war against terrorism,
and that Afghanistan is the focus for now, but the mission is a war
against terrorism; that Osama bin Laden will be caught, but Osama bin
Laden is not the focus of what we're doing; he's an objective of this
war on terrorism, but the focus is much larger, which is to help win a
war against terrorism wherever terrorism has global reach," said
Fleischer.
Also January 23, Bush signed legislation waiving income tax liability
for two years for families of victims of the September 11 terrorist
attacks, last fall's anthrax attacks and the 1995 Oklahoma City
bombing.
The new law also creates a New York "Liberty Zone" around the
lower-Manhattan site of the former World Trade Center, where some $6.1
billion in fresh tax breaks will apply for businesses struggling to
recover from the attacks.
(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site:
http://usinfo.state.gov)
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