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U.S. Senate Authorizes More Than $400 Billion in Defense Spending
The U.S. Senate yesterday passed the fiscal 2004 billion defense authorization bill, which included a provision lifting a 10-year-old federal ban on research into low-yield nuclear weapons, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Nov. 12). The $401 billion bill would authorize $15 million for research into the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, which defense officials hope will be able to destroy deeply buried weapons of mass destruction and underground bunkers. Congressional Republicans have pushed for the new nuclear weapons research as a way to destroy WMD stockpiles but Democrats have said the move could strike a blow against nuclear nonproliferation efforts. The bill passed the House of Representatives on Friday by a vote of 362-40. The Senate voted 95-3 for the bill, which will now go to President George W. Bush for his signature. Democratic Senators Robert Byrd (W.Va) and Daniel Akaka (Hawaii) voted against the bill, along with independent Senator James Jeffords (Vt.). The bill “transfers vast, unchecked powers to the Defense Department while avoiding any break with the business-as-usual approach to increasing defense spending,” Byrd said (Associated Press/USA Today, Nov. 13).
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