Online Sponsor: April 01, 2003
Bush Will Get More Funding Than Requested By BRADLEY PENISTON, DEFENSE NEWS MEDIA GROUP
The White House asked March 25 for Congress’ approval to spend an extra $74.7 billion to fund the conflict in Iraq and the war on terrorism. “We’ll give the president everything he wants and probably some stuff he didn’t ask for, because we want our services to have” the equipment they need, Weldon told listeners April 1 at the Strike Warfare & Precision Attack conference here. In what has become an annual event, the military service chiefs sent the House Armed Services Committee a list of “unfunded requirements” for this year and for 2004 worth $42.4 billion. The “wish lists” were delivered in early March at the request of Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Weldon declined to discuss what specifically the House would add to its version of the supplemental appropriations bill. At the conference, Weldon also called for more spending on military science and technology research, and a tougher, more consistent approach to efforts to stem the proliferation of technology that could help potential adversaries build better missiles, battlefield equipment and weapons of mass destruction. He called the multinational Wassenaar Agreement, created in 1996 to counter the proliferation of various military technologies, “a joke.”
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