U.S. President to Propose Defense Increase for 2002The Bush administration of the United States will ask Congress to increase next year's military budget by an additional US$18.4 billion, capping a review of Pentagon needs by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, an administration official said Friday.The figure would be 5.7 percent over the US$325.1 billion that President George W. Bush proposed in the fiscal 2002 budget he released in April. The request would bring Bush's overall defense proposal for 2002 to US$343.5 billion. That would be a 10.3 percent increase over the US$311.3 billion the military has received so far for this fiscal year, which ends on September 30. |
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