U.S. Senate Approves Defense BillThe U.S. Senate Thursday voted 97 to 3 to pass the defense authorization bill for the fiscal year 2001.The bill budgets nearly 310 billion U.S. dollars, 4.5 billion dollars more than President Bill Clinton requested and 19 billion dollars more than the current year, for weapons procurement, military readiness and personnel. It includes a 3.7 percent pay raise for members of the military, 64 billion dollars for procurement and 4.1 billion dollars for operations in Bosnia, Kosovo and Southwest Asia. The bill would provide 1.9 billion dollars for the National Missile Defense (NMD) program, more than double the amount authorized in fiscal 2000. |
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