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US Pentagon Chief Opposes Congressional Moves to Cut Missile Defense Budget
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Thursday that moves in the Congress to cut the Pentagon's proposed missile defense budget were "very harmful" and would undermine and delay important research and testing.
Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told the Washington Post that Democrats on the committee plan to cut 1.3 billion dollars from the administration request for 8.3 billion dollars budget request for 2002.
Speaking at a Pentagon press conference, Rumsfeld claimed that the Democrats' plan would set back the missile defense program and could weaken Washington's hand in talks with Russia.
"If you take 1.3 billion dollars out of some portion of it, it' s big," Rumsfeld said. "It moves everything to the right. It delays things."
However, Rumsfeld expressed confidence that once both the Senate and House complete work on the 2002 defense budget they will give the administration the full 329 billion dollars it has requested. The sum is 18.4 billion dollars more than President George W. Bush proposed last February and 33 billion dollars more than the 2001 budget.
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