Bush To Seek $80 Billion in Extra Funding
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The Bush administration will ask Congress to approve about $80 billion in extra defense spending this year, most of it for operations in Iraq, three administration officials said.
The additional funds would bring supplemental spending in fiscal 2005 to a total of $105 billion, including $25 billion Congress approved in August. The request would add 25% to the $420 billion defense budget approved last year.
The White House Office of Management and Budget may outline the request as early as today. The Army’s share of the supplemental – which includes Afghanistan and other military operations as well – is about $57 billion, the officials said.
Overall, America spent $102 billion through September 30 on the invasion and occupation of Iraq, with costs averaging $4.8 billion a month, the Pentagon comptroller’s office said earlier this month. The White House is scheduled to send Congress its budget request for fiscal 2006 on February 7.
The supplemental request will include about $340 million for aid given in the aftermath of last month’s tsunami in South Asia and East Africa. The money would reimburse the Navy for helicopter sorties and for the overall expense of deploying the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier group to support humanitarian relief.
The size of the administration’s request is consistent with the range of earlier press accounts and analysts’ predictions.
The chairman of the Democratic House Budget Committee, Rep. John Spratt, a Democrat of South Carolina, said the reported amount of the supplemental jibes was what he expected: A catch-all spending bill of about $80 billion to carry out military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for the year that ends September 30.
The emergency spending bill also includes money to start payments for 20,000 extra troops Congress agreed should be added to the Army this fiscal year, bringing the total active Army to 502,400 troops. Lawmakers also agreed to add another 10,000 troops by 2009 and 9,000 Marines by 2009 for a total force of 184,000, up from 175,000 today.
Separately, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office is scheduled to issue its revised estimates and projections of federal spending over the next 10 years.
