Lawmakers' Priorities Probably Will Push Bush Proposal Beyond $87 Billion
Even as new questions surface about items in President Bush's war spending request, lawmakers say the measure's $87 billion price tag appears more likely to expand than shrink this week when lawmakers draft legislation to fund the war and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Republicans and Democrats alike are questioning some Iraq reconstruction provisions, such as a $100 million witness protection program, two $200 million prisons and a $9 million effort to automate the postal system and establish Zip codes. New details emerged yesterday on the Afghan side of the ledger, including $3 million to meet the government's payroll through June, $9 million for tax collection, $20 million to finance 200 election experts for six months, $10 million to build four industrial parks and 50 crop-and-livestock markets, $8 million for an Afghan Highway Patrol, and $30 million to protest President Hamid Karzai.
Even so, the prominent changes that Congress may approve would expand the cost. The Senate Appropriations Committee will begin drafting its version of the war spending bill today. House Appropriations Committee leaders hope their version will reach a final vote by mid-October.
If Democrats demand some spending on their priorities as the price for their support, "they'll do it in a heartbeat," Daniel J. Mitchell, an economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said of the White House and GOP leadership.
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