cheney...he be smilin........
Top Stories - Reuters
W.House Assembles Iraq Package, May Seek $65 Billion
Wed Sep 3, 9:52 PM ET Add Top Stories - Reuters to My Yahoo!
By Adam Entous
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Under pressure to quickly bolster military operations and reconstruction efforts in postwar Iraq (news - web sites), the Bush administration is drawing up an ambitious spending plan that could cost up to $65 billion, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
Senior White House officials told key members of Congress they would propose the emergency spending package "sooner rather than later," most likely before President Bush (news - web sites) attends the annual session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Sept. 23, sources said.
"We frankly just don't have the time to wait any longer," Rep. James Kolbe, an Arizona Republican who chairs the foreign aid subcommittee in the House of Representatives, told Fox News.
The proposed budget request would be a dramatic change of course for the administration, which had not planned to ask Congress for additional money until late this year.
"We need to do this now. They're working on the numbers as we speak," Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said after meetings at the White House.
The White House declined to talk about numbers and insisted no decisions had been made.
"We are still assessing the needs and listening to (the top U.S. administrator in Iraq Paul) Bremer and the commanders in the field about what the exact needs are," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bill Young, a Florida Republican, said figures were not discussed at a White House meeting on Wednesday but that the $65 billion estimate was "probably accurate. That's the sense I'm getting."
Sources said the administration was reviewing a range of funding options.
A leading proposal would provide $55 billion to the Pentagon (news - web sites) for military operations in Iraq and elsewhere.
In addition, the White House would be asking Congress for $10 billion to expedite reconstruction efforts. The U.S. Agency for International Development could receive up to $2.7 billion of that, sources said.
The reconstruction package would also include an estimated $1 billion for Afghanistan (news - web sites), which, like Iraq, has been wracked by postwar violence.
Many funding issues have yet to be resolved, such as the number of countries sending peacekeepers to Iraq and whether Washington would foot the bill for their deployment.
GROWING CONCERNS
Congressional aides said the proposed request reflected growing concerns -- both within the White House and Congress -- about mounting violence and the slow pace of reconstruction.
U.S. occupation authorities in Iraq are running low on money. The president has promised to provide them the resources they need, but critics say he has yet to deliver.
Earlier this year, Congress gave Bush $79 billion to pay for the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, including $2.5 billion as seed money for Iraq's postwar restoration.
By asking for extra money sooner than expected, Bush could demonstrate his commitment to Iraq before appealing to other nations to volunteer their own troops to a multinational force. Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) has began negotiations with Security Council members on a draft U.N. resolution that would adjust the arrangements for running postwar Iraq.
A massive spending request could be politically risky for Bush.
Administration officials have played down the cost of reconstruction for months, although they now concede oil revenues will not meet Iraq's needs as the White House had hoped.
A $65 billion request would also push the nation's budget deficit to well above the half-trillion-dollar mark for the first time. (Additional reporting by Vicki Allen) |
