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Rumsfeld Stays Out of Any Decision-Making on Weapons Programs
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Thursday that he has not involved in any decision-making on weapons programs.
Rumsfeld' remarks were directed to General Dynamics Corp.'s proposed merger with Newport News Shipbuilding.
Speaking at a press conference, Rumsfeld proposed defense industry mergers to avoid the appearance of a personal conflict of interest.
The U.S. Pentagon is preparing a recommendation to the antitrust division of the Justice Department on whether it supports the merger, defense officials said.
Rumsfeld, a multimillionaire who spent more than 20 years as a business executive before taking the Pentagon job in January, said he still owns one or two investment funds, which he described as illiquid.
He said he does not know what companies those funds have invested in, and therefore he has stayed away from Pentagon deliberations involving weapons and proposed mergers, to avoid a potential conflict of interest.
"I have tended to stay away from them thus far," he said. "We' ve got senior people who are perfectly capable of doing them."
Rumsfeld had a wide array of financial interests and affiliations when he came to the Pentagon, many of which he has dropped. He was chairman of the board of Gilead Sciences Inc. and served on the board of directors of other companies.
Rumsfeld Asks Congress to Approve Military Budget Donald Rumsfeld asked Congress Thursday to approve the Bush administration's proposed 329-billion-U.S.-dollar military budget.
The Defense Department will fight for "every nickel" of the military budget despite dwindling federal surpluses, Rumsfeld told reporters in response to threats to cut President George W. Bush's military spending request for the fiscal year 2002 beginning on October 1.
"Defense is a priority that is distinctive and the President has indicated that," Rumsfeld said. "We need every nickel and we will be working to get it ...the need is so serious and so real and the president's commitment is clear."
When the votes are cast later this year, Rumsfeld added, he expects support for "a strong national defense."
The U.S. defense budget proposal now before Congress for fiscal 2002 would increase defense spending by 18.4 billion dollars above an initial blueprint submitted in February and by about 33 billion dollars over current defense spending.
The defense budget, which calls for more than 8 billion dollars for work on Bush's proposed anti-missile system, represents the biggest proposed military spending increase since the Soviet Union collapsed and the Cold War ended.
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