Washington, May 13: President George W Bush formally asked Congress for $25 billion for US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan early next year, requesting almost
unfettered latitude in deciding how the money would be spent.
In documents running just over three pages, the President yesterday provided only a broad description of his plans for the money.
"I have pledged to our troops that they will have all the resources they need to accomplish this vital mission, and I urge the Congress to approve this reserve fund," Bush said in a letter to Congressional leaders.
Lawmakers are considered certain to provide the money Bush wants over the next few months. It is designed to cover the first months of the government's 2005 budget year, which starts next October 1.
Even so, Democrats and some Republicans, rankled by reports that the administration used earlier funds for Iraq war preparations without telling them, are leery of providing
him with unlimited flexibility in dispensing the money.
"I'm sure that Congress would want to be sure that there's limitations on these monies and that this will not be a slush fund," Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, top Democrat on the Senate appropriations committee, told defence secretary Donald H Rumsfeld at a hearing earlier yesterday.
According to the request, the $25 billion would be placed in a fund Bush would control. He could decide how the money would be spent, as long as he informed Congress that his
request was "an emergency and essential to support activities and agencies in Iraq or Afghanistan."
Bureau Report
