House Approves Bush’s Homeland and War Funding
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House leader Dick Armey at white House as U.S. President Bush introduces Homeland plan to Congress. |
WASHINGTON,
July 19 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - U.S. President George W.
Bush scored twice with Congress as House Republicans endorsed most of
his plan to create a homeland security department and the two chambers
agreed on additional funding for his war on terror.
A
bill unveiled by Republican leaders of the House of Representatives
Thursday accepts the bulk - but not all - of the president's proposal
to merge various security services into a single agency responsible
for protecting Americans from terrorist attack.
The
Department of Homeland Security, as envisaged by the White House, will
have more than 170,000 employees and an annual budget of $38 billion.
The
House bill, introduced by Republican Majority Leader Richard Armey
(R-TX.), chairman of a nine-member select panel preparing the House's
version of the homeland security bill, agreed to move the Coast Guard,
Secret Service and Federal Emergency Management Agency into the new
department, as he rejected numerous changes recommended by some of his
own Republican colleagues that would have limited the scope of the new
department, reports the Washington Post.
The
provision saves the President from a potential political disaster
because several House committees already voted earlier this month to
keep all of these services in their current agencies.
But
contrary to Bush's wishes, the new department will not receive the
entire Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).
Under
the Republican plan, only the INS's enforcement units will join the
new agency, while employees processing immigration cases will remain
at the Justice Department.
The
bill practically exempts the new department from the Freedom of
Information Act, which provides for declassification of secret
government documents after 30 years.
But
in a nod to civil libertarians, the House Republicans banned so-called
"Operation TIPS," under which citizens were supposed to
inform on one another.
"These
are two programs that bother me," Armey said.
Also
nixed was the idea of introducing national driver's licenses and other
identity cards currently issued by states.
As
House leaders signaled their acceptance of the White House homeland
security plan, Senate-House negotiators late Thursday produced a
long-awaited agreement on supplemental funds for the war in
Afghanistan and other "anti-terrorist" operations.
In
a victory for Bush, the negotiators approved $28.9 billion for these
purposes to be spent through the rest of the current fiscal year to
September 30, an amount close to the President's request.
Half
of the money - $14.5 billion - will go to the Department of Defense.
Another
$3.8 billion will be spent on bolstering security at the nation's
airports, $5.5 billion on helping New York recover after the September
11 attacks, while the Federal Bureau of Investigation will be given an
additional $175 million for its counter-terrorism activities.
The
negotiators agreed to give Israel $200 million dollars in additional
assistance to combat international terrorism.
Residents
of the West Bank and Gaza will receive $50 million in humanitarian
aid, but the legislation strictly prohibits assistance to the
Palestinian Authority.
The
supplemental anti-terror budget request had been bogged down on
Capitol Hill for weeks, after senators attached to it dozens of items
in unrelated election-year spending, bringing the total to over $31
billion and prompting a White House veto threat.
While
insisting that the House-Senate agreement still needed to be reviewed,
White House spokeswoman Jeanie Mamo said the President was
"encouraged" by it.
"The
White House is pleased the bill was changed to achieve the President's
goals," she told Agence France-Presse (AFP). "Those goals
are to pay, train and arm our troops and make airports safer while
bringing total spending down to the level he requested."
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