Rumsfeld and Ridge Defend $75-Billion Supplemental Request to Senate Appropriators
Iraqi government resources and not U.S. taxpayer dollars will be the first source of funds to rebuild Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told a Senate panel March 27.
In testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee, Rumsfeld said the $74.7 billion supplemental budget request that President George W. Bush submitted to Congress earlier this week "is not the cost of the war" nor the cost of rebuilding Iraq. "We cant know how long the effort in Iraq is going to last, and we certainly cant tell what it is going to cost," he asserted. Of the total amount, $62.6 billion would go for the military effort. About $3.5 billion has been earmarked for reconstruction.