# 99055. Cohen Says Budget Will Keep America Unrivaled

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By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. military will continue excelling in 
all its missions under the president's $268 billion fiscal 
2000 DoD budget, Defense Secretary William S. Cohen said 
Feb. 1.

DoD's portion of the $1.8 trillion fiscal 2000 federal 
budget marks the first year of a sustained increase in 
defense spending. The 2000 budget request is $8 billion 
higher than was projected last year, and projections now 
through fiscal 2005 show an overall spending increase of 
$112 billion.

"People first" drives the budget, Cohen said. The fiscal 
2000 increase pays for a 4.4 percent pay hike on Jan. 1; 
reform of military pay tables effective July 1, 2000; 
restoration of a military retirement system that provides 
50 percent of basic pay after 20 years of service; and 
increased specialty pays and recruiting bonuses.

"We think this package will go a long way toward dealing 
with the issues of recruiting and retention," he said. It 
also shows defense leaders have heard what service members 
have been saying, he added. 

Demonstrating the priority of people, he said, funding for 
modernization programs was $1 billion under initial 
projections in order to fully fund personnel pay and 
retirement. The budget proposal now calls for $53 billion 
in modernization funding which is up $4 billion from fiscal 
99. Cohen said modernization is on track to reach the QDR 
goal of $60 billion by 2001.
 
The budget request isn't enough to cover all of DoD's 
family housing, barracks and other military installation 
needs, Cohen said. It will, however, take care of the 
military's "most pressing needs" and support the "shape, 
respond and prepare" strategy of the 1997 Quadrennial 
Defense Review, he said.

Keeping U.S. service members forward deployed is at the 
heart of shaping the international environment, Cohen said. 
The presence of American troops is a calming influence 
throughout the world. 

DoD will also help shape the international environment 
spending another $2.9 billion in the Cooperative Threat 
Reduction program. This program helps the countries of the 
former Soviet Union control and draw down nuclear arms.

The budget allows DoD to respond to the full range of 
threats, Cohen said. The threats run from two near-
simultaneous major regional conflicts to humanitarian 
relief operations. "We have increased funds for readiness, 
including funds to attract and retain quality service 
members," he said. 

The possibility of a rogue state launching a weapon of mass 
destruction at the United States is becoming more likely, 
Cohen said, and DoD is planning to combat the threat. DoD 
plans to request $10.5 billion in National Missile Defense 
spending through fiscal 2005, nearly triple the fiscal 1999 
budget forecast, he said. 

Cohen said the 1997 Defense Reform Initiative remains an 
important program for the department's long-term health. He 
said DoD is privatizing utilities and moving toward 
paperless processing. "We have almost finished the one-
third reduction of the [Office of the Secretary of Defense] 
staff," he said. Defense agencies are expected to cut 
personnel by 20 percent.

"By 2005, we will have competed 229,000 civilian positions 
with private sources," he said. No matter who wins the job 
bidding, costs will fall and DoD will save -- by some 
estimates as much as $11 billion by 2005, he added.

Finally, Cohen will ask for two more rounds of base 
closures in 2001 and 2005. He said Congress can take the 
savings generated by two more rounds of closures and "put 
it in the hands of the men and women who serve," or 
continue to pay for unneeded and unnecessary installations. 

He said legislators must know there won't be as many F-22 
fighters, Joint Strike Fighters or V-22s as the military 
needs if "we're still carrying infrastructure we don't 
need."

He said the U.S. military is the best in the world. "From 
Desert Storm to Desert Fox, the U.S. military in known for 
flawless execution of military operations," he said. "I 
would like to assure Americans that their military is ready 
for the next century. Ten years after the end of the Cold 
War the professionalism of America's military is 
undiminished, and we have an unrivaled human and 
technological foundation to build on for the future."

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