Home>>World
Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, June 28, 2002

US Senate Passes 393-Billion-Dollar Defense Bill

The US Senate passed a bill Thursday to authorize 393 billion US dollars for defense spending for the fiscal year 2003 beginning October 1, the biggest increase in decades.


PRINT DISCUSSION CHINESE SEND TO FRIEND


The US Senate passed a bill Thursday to authorize 393 billion US dollars for defense spending for the fiscal year 2003 beginning October 1, the biggest increase in decades.

The blueprint for military spending by the Pentagon and nuclear weapons-related programs at the Energy Department roughly matches President George W. Bush's request. Passed by 97-2, the bill would provide an increase of about 50 billion dollars, or 15 percent, over the defense spending authorized for 2002.

It included a 4.1 percent raise for military personnel and some of the biggest funding increases for the military in decades.

The House of Representatives passed a 383-billion-dollar version early last month.

The Senate bill includes a 10-billion-dollar contingency fund proposed by the White House for future war costs. In the House bill, this fund is contained in separate legislation.

The Senate passed the bill one day after reaching a compromise over the missile defense budget. It cut 814 million dollars from Bush's 7.6 billion dollar request for development of a national missile defense system, but agreed to give the president a final say on whether to use extra funds to boost spending on missile defense.

The House defense authorization bill provided 7.4 billion dollars for missile defense.

Minutes before the Senate passed the defense bill, the House of Representatives passed a 355-billion-dollar bill to detail specific spending for the Pentagon for the fiscal year 2003, the first of 13 appropriations bills that Congress must pass every year. The Senate has yet to pass its version.

Testifying before a House Armed Services subcommittee on Thursday, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz urged the Congress to provide full funding for missile defense research.

He said any cut would "severely delay" efforts to build a prototype defense system for long-range missiles and would force the Pentagon to fire hundreds of engineers and other missile defense workers.

The Bush administration withdrew the United States from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty with Russia earlier this month in an effort to develop and deploy a layered missile defense system against potential missile attack.

The Pentagon estimates the system will cost 48 billion dollars over the next five years. Critics say the program is too costly and questionable technologically.


Questions?Comments? Click here
    Advanced






US Senate Approves 318 Billion Dollar Defense Bill



 


Englishman Hired as Chief Advisor of Yunnan Provincial Government ( 74 Messages)

Mysterious Pipes Left by "ET" Reported from Qinghai ( 8 Messages)

Premier Zhu Discusses Economic Issues with Experts ( 2 Messages)

Uncle Sam's Policy to Cross-Straits Ties against Its Own Interests ( 46 Messages)

China Strikes Hard on Drug Crimes ( 4 Messages)

China to Boost the Service Sector to Create More Jobs ( 7 Messages)



Copyright by People's Daily Online, all rights reserved