Spending: Bush’s War Funding Request Includes $1.5 Billion for DOD Construction
President Bush’s latest request for additional defense funding, totaling $45.9 billion, is primarily for the war in Iraq. But it does include $1.5 billion for Dept. of Defense construction, mostly for work overseas but also for three Dept. of Defense medical facility projects in the U.S.
The fiscal 2008 supplemental proposal, sent to Congress on Oct. 22, would be on top of a $150.5-billion request made earlier, though not yet acted on by Congress. It drew sharp criticism from top congressional Democrats like Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.). “It is astonishing that the President can propose $153 billion for the war in Iraq, while he requests no funding none to provide medical care to our veterans, to secure our borders or to secure our ports,” says Byrd.