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Bush Signs Defense Spending Bill
Wednesday, October 23, 2002
(12:04 PM ET)
By Jenifer Loven
Associated Press Writer

Bush noted the many tasks being placed on the military's shoulders: "bring justice to agents of terror ... liberate a captive people on the other side of the Earth ... prepare for conflict in Iraq if necessary ... serve in many places far from home and at great risk. ... We owe them every resource, every weapon and every tool they need to fulfill their missions. The best military in the world must have every advantage required to defend the peace of the world."

WASHINGTON -- AP
With strokes of his pen Wednesday, President Bush signed into law a bill he touted as giving the military "every advantage required" to wage an expensive, no-end-in-sight global fight against terror and possibly Saddam Hussein.

"Since September 11, Americans have been reminded that the safety of many depends on the courage and skill of a few," Bush said before signing legislation providing a hefty increase in defense spending and financing for military construction projects in 2003.

"The bill today says America is determined and resolute to not only defend our freedom but to defend freedom around the world, that we're determined and resolute to answer the call to history and that we will defeat terror," Bush told a Rose Garden audience of mostly uniformed military personnel, along with a handful of lawmakers.

The measures were the first federal spending bills to become law -- three weeks after the start of the 2003 budget year.

Lawmakers who were deadlocked over spending decisions and anxious about midterm elections left Capitol Hill last week to campaign. They plan to finish the other 11 required spending bills in a lame-duck session after the Nov. 5 voting.
(More: The Daily Press News Source)
2002 © The Associated Press.

Dan