U.S. Senate Set to Approve Fiscal 2004 Defense Authorization Bill

The U.S. Senate is expected to approve soon the completed fiscal 2004 defense authorization bill, with a vote expected as early as today, according to the New York Times (see GSN, Nov. 11).

The bill was completed by House-Senate negotiators and approved by the full House of Representatives last week. The bill contains the entire Bush administration request of $451 million for the Cooperative Threat Reduction program, which assists efforts to destroy WMD stockpiles in the former Soviet Union. The House had proposed cutting $29 million in funding from the program’s efforts to assist in chemical weapons disposal (David Firestone, New York Times, Nov. 12).

The bill would also authorize more than $9 billion in missile defense spending, the Associated Press reported (Ken Guggenheim, Associated Press, Nov. 12).

Back to top
About Newswire  |  Contact National Journal  |  Re-Use Guidelines © Copyright 2008 by National Journal Group, Inc. The material in this section is produced independently for NTI by National Journal Group, Inc. Any reproduction or retransmission, in whole or in part, is a violation of federal law and is strictly prohibited without the consent of the National Journal Group, Inc. All rights reserved.