US President George W. Bush has signed the 420.6 billion US dollar National Defense Authorization Act, which makes up 19.9 percent of the total fiscal 2005 federal budget and 3.6 percent of the gross domestic product, the Defense Department announced Monday.

The authorization act, which Bush signed on Oct. 28, is the second of two bills that have to become law for the Defense Department to operate, the department said in a statement. The first is the Defense Appropriations Act, which Bush signed into law in August and provides the money. The authorization act gives the Pentagon the approval to spend the money.

"The act authorizes funding for defense of the United States and its interests abroad, for military construction, and for national security-related energy programs," a White House statement said.

The bill raises the end-strength level of the Army and Marine Corps by 20,000 and 3,000, respectively. The Army end-strength will be set at 502,000, and Marines, 178,000.

The bill funds a 3.5 percent across-the-board pay raise for service members and eliminates out-of-pocket expenses for housing by increasing the basic allowance for housing. The bill also makespermanent increases in hostile fire/imminent danger pay to 225 dollars per month and in family separation pay to 250 dollars per month.

The bill allows the US base realignment and closure process to move forward, and creates a special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, under the joint authority of the defense and statesecretaries, to succeed the inspector general of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq.

The defense bill that Bush signed in August provides nearly 78 billion dollars for weapons purchases, a 3.5 percent pay increase for troops, and an additional 25 billion dollars for US operationsin Iraq and Afghanistan.

It also allocates 10 billion dollars for continued work on a national missile defense system, 100 million dollars for the Air Force to modernize its fleet of midair refueling tankers, and money for 39 more Army Black Hawk helicopters, a Virginia-class attack submarine, and three guided-missile destroyers.

Source: Xinhua