*EPF305 01/23/2002
Bush Will Ask Military Spending Increase for War on Terror
(To request $48,000 million more from Congress in FY 2003 budget) (670)

By Wendy S. Ross
Washington File White House Correspondent

Washington -- President Bush will ask the U.S. Congress to approve nearly $50,000 million more on military spending for the war on terrorism in the coming fiscal year.

Bush gave the first details of the $2,000,000 million federal budget for fiscal year 2003, beginning October 1, in a January 23 speech to the Reserve Officers Association.

"Our fight against terrorism began in Afghanistan, but it's not going to end there," Bush said.

"We still face a shadow enemy who dwells in the dark corners of the Earth. Dangers and sacrifices lie ahead, yet America will not rest, we will not tire until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, has been stopped, and has been defeated."

The administration will send its budget plan to Congress February 4.

The Bush budget will ask Congress to provide the Pentagon an increase of $48,000 million, bringing that budget for the new fiscal year within range of $380,000 million. If approved by the House and Senate the funds would amount to the largest increase in military spending in 20 years, Bush said.

The extra money would fund another pay raise for military service personnel and permit the acquisition of more precision weapons and the building of missile defenses.

"Buying these tools may put a strain on the budget, but we will not cut corners when it comes to the defense of our great land," said Bush.

To keep Americans safe from terrorists at home, the president said his budget will also increase funding for Homeland Defense initiatives that will permit the hiring of 30,000 new federal airport security workers and 300 more FBI agents.

In addition, he said, the Homeland Security budget will provide for: the purchase of new equipment to improve the safety of the mail and protect the men and women who deliver it; a major research program to combat the threat of bioterrorism; modernization of the nation's public health laboratories so they can better detect and treat outbreaks of disease; anti-terrorist training for state and local fire fighters, police and rescue workers; and steps to better secure the nation's borders.

At the White House, press secretary Ari Fleischer told reporters President Bush's priorities in the budget he proposes will be:

"To increase defense spending so that our nation can win the war on terrorism and so that our men and women have the tools they need to finish the job;

"Two, to protect the homeland -- homeland security -- because the President believes the best way to protect the economy is to prevent another attack on our country;

"And thirdly, to take care of vital domestic needs. And to do so, there will be a need to limit the growth, to increase spending more slowly, if you will, on many of the issues on the domestic home front, recognizing that for the last several years there have been major increases in many of these domestic accounts.

Earlier in the day January 23, Bush met for half an hour at the White House with Republican and Democratic leaders of Congress.

The president spent about half the meeting talking about the domestic agenda and about half talking about the war, Fleischer said.

"The president believes that things have gone very, very well in achieving our missions in Afghanistan. And the president looks forward to his State of the Union, where the president is also going to explain to the American people how this is a war against terrorism and that Afghanistan is the focus for now, but the mission is a war against terrorism; that Osama bin Laden will be caught, but Osama bin Laden is not the focus of what we're doing; he's an objective of this war on terrorism, but the focus is much larger, which is to help win a war against terrorism wherever terrorism has global reach," said Fleischer.

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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