Senate committee cuts missile defense budget
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SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Monday, September 10, 2001
WASHINGTON Ñ A key Senate panel has cut $1.3 billion from the Bush
administration's missile defense program.
The Senate Armed Services Committee voted 13-12 to cut the money during
a hearing on the defense authorization bill on Friday. The panel approved a
$343 billion defense budget for fiscal 2002.
The administration has asked Congress for $8.3 billion in missile
defense for fiscal 2002, which begins in October. This is a $3 billion
increase from the current year.
Senate Democrats said the panel approved the largest increase of any
program in the defense budget. The House Armed Services Committee,
controlled by the Republicans, has refused to follow the Senate cut in the
administration's budget request.
It is unclear how the proposed budget decrease in the administration's
request will affect U.S. missile defense cooperation plans. Israel has asked
for a $50 million increase in the Arrow-2 joint missile defense project on
top of a $65 million allocation requested by the White House for 2002.
Amid the vote to cut the missile defense budget, Senate Armed Services
Committee chairman Carl Levin also included a provision that Congress must
approve any missile defense tests that violate the terms of the 1972
Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty. The administration has regarded the treaty as
obsolete.
The full Senate will take up the defense budget request later this
month.
In another development, the United States faces an increasingly tough
battle against leaks of sensitive technology. A new official report said 63
countries, many of them from the Middle East, have used improper means in
attempts to obtain sensitive U.S. technology.
The technology includes computers, aircraft, missiles and sensors.
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