Military Budget

What's Going On

Analysis of Fiscal 2003 Defense Authorization Conference Report

With the election over, the House and Senate Armed Services Committees completed action on the almost $400 billion fiscal 2003 Defense Authorization Conference Report.  They had postponed action on the last
item of disagreement: benefits for disabled veterans (concurrent receipt).  They finally reached a compromise that left veterans' groups furious because only a small number of disabled veterans will benefit
(about 33,000 out of 550,000).  The House of Representatives approved the conference report by voice vote on November 12; the Senate also approved the bill by voice vote on November 13.

There are a few positive elements in the conference report:

Congress -

• Insisted on substantial oversight over the Administration's missile defense program; the Administration preferred a blank check from Congress;
• Refused to permit work on a nuclear-tipped missile defense interceptor;
• Refused to permit work on low-yield nuclear weapons;
• Slowed -- but did not stop -- work on a nuclear bunker buster;
• Provided full $1.1 billion in funding for Department of Energy nuclear non-proliferation programs, although still far short of the Baker-Cutler goal of $3 billion a year;
• Adopted portions of Domenici-Biden legislation that expands the scope of the Department of Energy non-proliferation program;
• Provided Administration greater flexibility for the Department of Defense Nunn-Lugar non-proliferation program;
• Refused to permit most of the requested waivers of environmental laws.

 Full Military Budget for 2003

from the National Priorities Project

These numbers show you how much of your tax dollars go to missile defense, and to put this in perspective, we've shown how many children could have health care or head start, how many affordable houses could be built, or how many elementary teachers could be hired if your tax dollars were instead used for one of those activities.

State: Massachusetts

State Share of Missile Defense: $218 million

Head Start: 27,369 children

Children's Health Care Coverage: 95,368 children

Affordable Housing: 3,118 units

Elementary Teachers: 3,853 teachers

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