|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
    |
|
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
U.S. Budget: Defense, Homeland Security Get Budget Boosts By Bryan Bender Bush is asking Congress for $379.9 billion for the Defense Department, a $15 billion increase from the current year, or a 4.2 percent increase. A senior Pentagon official said last week that the budget aims to transform the military by making it faster and more agile, while exploiting dramatic advances in information technology and computer networking. Among the biggest increases would be a 50 percent funding boost for U.S. Special Forces, which have played a central role in the U.S.-led war on terrorism. The elite commandos are slated to receive $1.5 billion more than the current spending level of $3 billion. Substantial new money will also go for revolutionary technologies such as the development of a national missile defense system, the conversion of four trident nuclear ballistic missile submarines to launch conventional cruise missiles (see GSN, Jan. 27), and unmanned air and undersea vehicles. The budget also calls for a nearly $3 billion increase to $12.1 billion in the Navy’s shipbuilding budget to construct a Virginia-class nuclear attack submarine and several other new warships in the coming year. The budget forecasts that fully funding all the weapons systems on the Pentagon drawing board — including three new tactical aircraft programs — will require the department to have annual budgets of nearly half a trillion dollars by the end of the decade. Congressional Budget Office experts have said that it could be substantially higher, on the order of $75 billion more each year until 2009. On the home front, Bush’s budget reflects a large increase for the newest federal agency, the Homeland Security Department (see GSN, Jan. 23). The department is responsible for protecting U.S. territory from terrorist attack and it will be supported by a new military command, the U.S. Northern Command, tasked with supporting domestic security agencies (see GSN, Oct. 1, 2002). Created just 10 days ago, the Homeland Security Department is slated to receive $23.9 billion in fiscal 2004, an 8 percent increase over what was expected. The department is in the process of consolidating all or parts of 22 federal agencies and a workforce of 170,000 personnel. The White House expects a $304 billion budget deficit next year as a result of the federal spending request, up $3 billion from this year’s level. A senior defense official played down talk that the defense budget and related security spending would unduly strain the U.S. economy. “We don’t think this is an undue burden on the economy in any way, shape or form,” the official said. However, he acknowledged that the budget does not take into account the accrued costs of the war on terrorism, a potential war with Iraq or other military operations worldwide. “We don’t know what the costs will be, and any figures you get will be garbage,” he said.
| ||||||||||
Back to top
