Some Good News in the Budget

摘要

The Defense Appropriations Bill signed by the President in August contains an additional $5.1 billion dollars added by Congress, including $1.8 billion in the form of emergency supplemental funding for Fiscal Year (FY) 2000. The vast majority of these additional funds were earmarked for the Army, demonstrating Congress' strong support for Army Transformation. The Senate and House in July approved the $287.8 billion defense appropriations bill for FY 2001. The budget the Clinton administration submitted to Congress in February requested $284.5 billion for defense. The Army's share of that budget was $70.8 billion, about $800 million short of the figure the service had submitted to the administration. This translated into a 1.7 percent decline in buying power for the Army with respect to the FY 2000 budget. But thanks to the additional funds present in the appropriations bill, the Army looks to be in better shape and its Transformation program is set to move forward.