1700万军款？$17 billion more to spend, mostly on military

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$17 billion more to spend, mostly on military
$7.6 billion of that will go for domestic spending, including hurricane recovery.
By RENEE SCHOOF
McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON | Taxpayers will be spending nearly $17 billion more than the $103 billion President Bush requested mainly for wars in Afghanistan and Iraq for the rest of this fiscal year.

More than half of the additional spending is also for fighting terrorism and other military needs, such as health care for wounded troops.

Congress had wanted to add $21 billion and impose an Oct. 1 date for the beginning of a withdrawal of most troops from Iraq. After negotiations with the White House, Congress dropped the withdrawal date, and Bush agreed to 80 percent of the extra spending. The House and Senate on Thursday night passed the measure.

The biggest chunk of the extra spending — $9.2 billion — will go to defense and homeland security. Included are $1.9 billion more for military health care; $1.8 billion for veterans health aimed at reducing a backlog of claims by veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan; and $1 billion for homeland security, including explosives-detection equipment at airports, and port and mass-transit security. In addition, money was set aside for the war in Afghanistan, specialized vehicles that provide more protection against roadside bombs, and military base closing and reorganization.

The rest — $7.6 billion — will go for nonmilitary domestic spending.

That sum includes $2.87 billion in additional spending for Gulf Coast hurricane recovery, led by $1.4 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers, partly to repair levees. Among other hurricane recovery funds are $115 million for agriculture damage, $50 million for Gulf Coast law enforcement needs, $110 million for the shrimp and fishing industries, $48 million to reimburse NASA for hurricane costs, and $10 million for historic preservation.

The domestic spending also includes $3 billion for farmers and ranchers hit by drought and other natural disasters; $393 million to provide health insurance for poor children; $465 million for fighting wildfires; $425 million for schools in rural, timber-dependent counties; and $510 million for many other smaller programs such as avian flu research and monitoring.

Democrats weeks ago dropped some of the spending items Republicans zeroed in on with scorn, such as money for peanut and spinach farmers, and grants to Denver and Minneapolis, the cities hosting next year’s political conventions.