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Bush: United Effort Needed to Fight Terror War's Two Fronts
Friday, January 25, 2002
By Linda D. Kozaryn
American Forces Press Service

Bush proposes spending $3.5 billion in fiscal 2003 to give these first responders money to buy equipment, train personnel and plan for contingencies:

* About $2 billion would be for first responders’ personal protective gear
* About $1.1 billion would be for training
* About $105 million would be to support state and local governments planing
* About $245 million to support exercise drills

WASHINGTON -- AFIS
They're evil, they're out there, and America is their target. Global terrorists are relentless in their desire to attack the world's bastion of freedom, according to President Bush.

The war against terrorism is a two-front war, the president said here this week. While the American military is on frontlines overseas, he wants to ensure America's homeland is prepared to respond to an attack.

Immediately after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Bush said, federal officials acted quickly to increase the number of sky marshals, deploy hundreds of Coast Guardsmen to patrol ports, and station 8,000 National Guardsmen in the nation's airports. They worked to acquire antibiotics for large-scale treatment of anthrax and to support the largest criminal investigation in U.S. history.

"All this came in response to a sudden emergency," he said. "Now we must undertake a sustained strategy for homeland defense."

The president said he would present his fiscal 2003 budget request to Congress next week. That request, he said, will include $48 billion in new defense spending and an increase of nearly $38 billion for homeland security.

If approved, the funding for homeland security would double the 2002 appropriation, the president noted. His budget request asks for money to complete the hiring of 30,000 new federal airport security workers and another 300 FBI agents, he said.

"It is the beginning of a homeland defense initiative which is going to last throughout my administration," Bush said. "It's the beginning of a cooperative effort."
(More: DoD News Source)
2002 © The United States Department of Defense.

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