Congress Approves $79 Billion Supplemental War Budget

Daniel Schack

In April, Congress rebuffed a Bush administration request that would have authorized wider use of funds currently intended to destroy weapons of mass destruction in Russia.

Congress passed the $79 billion supplemental wartime appropriations bill April 12 just before leaving for a two-week recess. In addition to funding the Iraq war, the bill also repeals the 1990 Iraq Sanctions Act, allowing U.S. weapons and other exports to Iraq, and increases military aid for allies in the region.

President George W. Bush had asked Congress for authorization to divert up to $50 million from the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program—aimed at destroying weapons of mass destruction in states of the former Soviet Union—to destroy such weapons in other countries, including Iraq. The money would have included funds already appropriated to CTR in previous fiscal years.

The appropriations bill was the wrong place to authorize extending the program beyond the former Soviet Union, said John Scofield, a spokesman for Republicans on the committee. Such a provision is usually placed in authorization legislation, rather than in legislation to appropriate funds.

Some proponents of expanding CTR programs, however, argue that, by reducing the supply of weapons of mass destruction, CTR programs provide a way to reduce the threat of terrorism. The bill should have done more to protect against terrorism, said the committee’s ranking Democrat, Representative David Obey of Wisconsin. Obey had sought to include more money for protections against terrorism but was unsuccessful.

“Many of my Republican friends on the committee felt compelled to vote against what they openly admitted appeared to be common-sense steps to reduce the threat and consequences of a terrorist attack because of the demands of party discipline,” Obey wrote in the committee report. “I find it incredible…that the members of the president’s party in Congress seem so incapable of breaking ranks with these decisions even when they openly admit that they are in personal disagreement.”

Although the final version zeroed out the CTR expansion request, it did include $148 million for Department of Energy nonproliferation programs, including $6 million for securing nuclear facilities.

Appropriations subcommittees worked out most differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill even before the first official negotiations began April 11. Before the bill emerged from the negotiating committee, the Senate, in an unusual move that allowed senators to leave for recess, voted to have the measure be considered as approved unanimously once the House passed it April 12.

Of Bush’s original $74.7 billion request in emergency funding, close to $60 billion was to go in a general defense fund. Although Bush received $3 billion more for defense and $4 billion more overall than he requested, he has less flexibility in how he can spend it than he had requested. Of the nearly $16 billion Bush did receive in discretionary spending, more than $5 billion is still earmarked for specific categories, such as at least $1.8 billion for classified activities.

Congress appropriated $1.3 billion in funds to replace munitions and procure additional weapons, such as laser-guided bombs and Patriot missile interceptors—less than one-third of Bush’s $3.7 billion request.

Congress also did not appropriate money specifically for chemical and biological detection and decontamination gear, despite a $1.1 billion request. The House-Senate final report said that the Pentagon could use money in Bush’s flexible account for those items.

Economic assistance to foreign governments came out to $7.5 billion. In addition to the $2.8 billion for rebuilding Iraq, the United States will provide funds for countries, such as Turkey, that helped in the war.

Of the $2.1 billion Congress appropriated for foreign militaries, Israel will receive the most, with at least $1 billion, in addition to at least $2 billion a year that the United States gives Israel annually. The country also will receive $9 billion in loan guarantees through September 2005.

Countries helping in the war on terrorism will also receive funds—$175 million for Pakistan and $406 million for Jordan.