http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-cost17.html

Bush seeks $85 bil. for wars, storms

February 17, 2006

BY ANDREW TAYLOR

WASHINGTON -- U.S. military spending for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will rise to $115 billion for this year -- and nearly $400 billion since the fighting started -- under an emergency request the White House submitted Thursday.

A separate request for almost $20 billion in new hurricane relief funds would bring total spending in response to Katrina and Rita to more than $100 billion.

The Bush administration readied a $65.3 billion war request, and Pentagon officials said the money would be sufficient to conduct the two wars at least through Sept. 30. Congress had approved $50 billion more for the war effort in December.

The Pentagon told congressional staffers that the latest request assumes a U.S. force of 138,000 troops on the ground in Iraq through Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year, even though the administration has signaled that troop numbers would fall below that this year.

12 more bodies found in Iraq

In Iraq on Thursday, the Shiite-dominated Interior Ministry announced an investigation into claims of death squads in its ranks as police found a dozen more bodies, bringing the number of apparent victims of sectarian reprisal killings to at least 30 this week.

At least 27 other people were killed Thursday in violence across Iraq, including three tribal sheiks slain in a drive-by shooting.

The administration's supplemental spending request for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars would bring the total for those missions to almost $400 billion. President Bush's budget anticipates an additional $50 billion for the budget year beginning Oct. 1, though the costs are likely to be much greater.

Thursday's dual requests totaled $85 billion and came 10 days after Bush submitted his $2.8 trillion federal budget for 2007. In that submission, Bush proposed cuts for a variety of domestic programs.

The latest request includes $4.2 billion for foreign aid, such as $75 million to promote democratic institutions in Iran, and $514 million to support peacekeeping efforts in Sudan and to provide food aid there.

The request also includes $2.9 billion for intelligence gathering and other related activities.

Billions to compensate residents

The $19.8 billion being requested for hurricane relief along the Gulf Coast includes $4.2 billion in flexible community development block grants aimed at compensating Louisiana residents whose homes have been damaged or destroyed.

Despite enduring more damage than Mississippi, Louisiana received a bare majority of $11.5 billion in community development block grant funds -- much of the money to be devoted to compensating homeowners -- that was approved in December. That reflected the clout of Mississippi's congressional delegation.

An additional $1.5 billion would go toward levee repair and other flood control projects. Some $3.1 billion would go to repair and rebuild federal facilities such as military bases and a Veterans Administration hospital in New Orleans.

And, in a move sure to raise objections from conservatives who have been pressing to finance disaster aid through spending cuts, $9.4 billion is requested for the Federal Emergency Management Agency's disaster relief fund for debris cleanup, housing aid and other relief. The request comes less than two months after lawmakers took $23.4 billion from FEMA's coffers to help pay for a $29 billion Katrina relief bill.

AP