Defense and veterans programs get boost in Senate budget

In advance of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's review of defense spending priorities, which is expected to recommend substantial increases over the long run, Senate Armed Services Chairman John Warner, R-Va., won an 84-16 vote earlier this month to boost the fiscal 2002 defense budget by $8.5 billion, while Sens. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, and Patty Murray, D-Wash., added $1 billion in fiscal 2002 for the atomic energy defense accounts.

Veterans' programs also did well during Senate debate over the fiscal 2002 budget resolution as Sen. Paul Wellstone succeeded, 53-46, in reducing President Bush's tax cut by $17 billion over 10 years to boost funding for veterans, and Bond got an 99-0 endorsement to bump up the fiscal 2002 veterans budget by $967 million.

Senate Judiciary Ranking Member Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, boosted the Justice Department's fiscal 2002 budget by $1.5 billion for aid to state and local law enforcement agencies; Harkin also won the decisive 53-47 vote to provide $450 billion over 10 years out of the tax cut for education programs. For fiscal 2002, Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., added $270.7 million for several children's programs and Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., took another $1.5 billion annually over 10 years out of the tax cut to pay for education technology programs.

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., secured $1.29 billion over 10 years for impact aid funding to reimburse school districts that include federal lands for lost property tax revenues, while Murray and Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, won another $108 million in fiscal 2002 for disaster aid programs, and Sens. Christopher (Kit) Bond, R-Mo., and John Kerry, D-Mass.-chairman and ranking member of the Small Business Committee-added $264 million in fiscal 2002 for various Small Business Administration programs.

Sens. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., and Timothy Johnson, D-S.D., got another $100 million annually in fiscal 2002 and fiscal 2003 for Bureau of Reclamation construction projects; Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, added $250 million in fiscal 2002 to the Coast Guard's budget; Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., increased the fiscal 2002 international trade enforcement budget by $30 million; and Appropriations ranking member Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., added $100 million in fiscal 2002 to improve the teaching of American history.