U.S. Defense Budget:  Congressional Recess Extends Funding Differences

By Kerry Boyd

Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — House and Senate conferees are expected next month to resolve remaining differences in the fiscal 2003 defense appropriations legislation, including programs to reduce the threat of weapons of mass destruction, build missile defenses, maintain and develop delivery vehicles for nuclear weapons and destroy U.S. chemical weapons.

The Senate passed a $355.4 billion bill last week (see GSN, Aug. 2), following passage in the House of Representatives of a slightly different version in June (see GSN, June 28).  Both bills meet President George W. Bush’s request of $416.7 million for cooperative threat reduction programs.  The Senate bill, however, would allow expanding threat reduction programs to other countries while the House bill would prohibit such a move, LaMontagne said (see GSN, May 7).

The Senate bill would also mandate that $10 million of threat reduction funds be used to dismantle and dispose of nuclear submarines and their reactor components in the Russian Far East.

Missile Defense

For missile defense, both the House and Senate would fund almost the full amount of the president’s $6.9 billion request, but the Senate bill would force the president to choose whether to spend $814 million of the requested amount on missile defense or counterterrorism, says an analysis by Council for a Livable World.

According to the council’s analysis, the Senate bill includes the following missile defense appropriations:

*         $3 billion for midcourse defense, $161 million less than Bush requested;

*         $734 million for the ballistic missile defense system segment, compared to the administration’s $1.1 billion request;

*         $714.9 million for the Space-Based Infrared System-High (SBIRS-High), for which Bush requested $814.9 million (see GSN, May 21);

*         $546.9 million for the boost defense segment, a $250 million decrease from the request;

*         $471.7 million for Patriot Advanced Capability 3 procurement, which matches the president’s request (see GSN, Aug. 5);

*         $340.4 million for missile defense sensors, a $33 million decrease, and

*         $196 million for the terminal defense segment, a $26 million increase over the president’s request.

The Senate bill would also prohibit the use of any of the appropriated funds for developing nuclear-armed interceptors for missile defense (see GSN, July 8).

For the Arrow missile defense program, which the United States has developed jointly with Israel, the Senate bill would provide $146 million (see GSN, July 30).  The amount includes $66 million for continuing the Arrow System Improvement Program, $10 million for the Enhanced Arrow Deployability Program and $70 million for producing Arrow missiles and components.

The Bush administration requested only $66 million for the Arrow program in fiscal 2003, and the House appropriated $130 million, LaMontagne said.

Delivery Vehicles

The Senate bill would provide $585.9 million for procuring 12 Trident II submarine-launched ballistic missiles, matching the president’s request, and $267 million for B-2 bomber research and development, $41.6 million more than requested, according to the Council for a Livable World (see GSN, Aug. 5).

Scrapping Chemical Weapons

For scrapping U.S. chemical weapons, the Senate legislation would provide slightly less than $1.5 billion.

It would also strongly encourage the incineration method for destroying the weapons by transferring destruction authority to the program manager for the Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment office — while removing that authority from officials at the Pueblo Army Depot in Colorado, which plans to use a water-based destruction method, and possibly from the Bluegrass Army Depot in Kentucky, which has also considered alternative methods (see GSN, July 25).

For further information, see:

U.S. Defense Department CTR Site

MDA Missile Defense System Site

PAC-3 Fact Sheet

U.S. Missile Defense 2002 Budget

Federation of American Scientists Background on Arrow

Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment Office

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Radiological Weapons:  U.K. Stockpiles Anti-Radiation Drug

The United Kingdom has stockpiled anti-radiation drugs at secret sites around the country due to fears that terrorists might target nuclear power plants or detonate a bomb laced with radioactive material, Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper reported yesterday (see GSN, July 9).

The British Health Department confirmed Friday that it has plans to protect London from a potential nuclear attack, Dawn reported.  The drug, potassium iodide, protects the thyroid gland against radiation (Amanullah Ghilzai, Dawn, Aug. 4).

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