If You Dont Think The Voice and Vote of Americans Count? Read Between the Lines! Highlights of Congressional Action in 2007 on National Security On February 4, the President sent the annual military budget to Congress. The budget totals $515.4 billion for Pentagon activities. However,adding funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (estimated by Defense Secretary Robert Gates at roughly $170 billion) plus the nuclear weapons portion of the Department of Energy budget, the total exceeds $700 billion. The Senate and House Budget Committees will take the first legislative action on the budget. Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) Program Administration Request: $88.8 million for the Department of Energy; $30 million for the Department of Defense, for a total of $118.8 million Final Action: $0 for the Department of Energy; $15 million for the Department of Defense Reprocessing Nuclear Waste Administration Request: $405 million Final Action: $179 million (as part of Department of Energy Appropriations) Total Funding for Nonproliferation Programs (including programs funded through the Defense Department, State Department, and Department of Energy) Administration Request: 3.36 billion. Final Action: 3.683 billion. Notable Threat Reduction Programs Included Within the Above Totals Cooperative Threat Reduction (Nunn-Lugar Program) Administration Request: $348 million Final Action: $428 million Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI) Administration Request: $115.5 million Final Action: $195 million (as part of Department of Energy appropriations) International Nuclear Material Protection & Cooperation Administration Request: $371 million Final Action: $603.2 million (as part of Department of Energy appropriations) Space Test Bed (i.e. space-based missile defense) Administration Request: $10 million
Missile Defense Programs Administration Request: $10.3 billion (includes missile defense, research and development, and procurement) Final Action: $9.9 billion ($85 million was ultimately cut from the $310 million requested to begin deployment of anti-missile interceptors in Poland and an associated radar in the Czech Republic) Conventional Trident Modification Program (to equip Trident II submarine-launched long-range missiles with non-nuclear warheads) Administration Request: $175 million Final Action: $0 ($100 million was appropriated solely for alternatives to the Conventional Trident Modification Program) Democracy Promotion in Iran (i.e. regime change slush fund) Administration Request: $108.71 million. Final Action: $60 million (as part of Foreign Operations Appropriations) Total Defense Spending (excluding the conduct of ongoing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan) Administration Request: $452.2 billion. Final Action: $448.7 billion. Iraq and Afghanistan War Cost: Administration Request: $196 billion in Supplemental Appropriations Bill Final Action thus far: $87 billion (including $70 billion for general military operations and nearly $17 billion for Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles). "The troops will march in; the crowds will cheer; and in four days everyone will have forgotten. Then we will be told that we have to send in more troops. It is like taking a drink. The effect wears off and you have to take another." -John F. Kennedy- Khalilah Sabra, MAS-Freedom, North Carolina *(VIP) Voting Really Is Power! --------------------------------- Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search.