Defense Bill to Have Money for Wildfires

[GreenPartyVoter]

WASHINGTON (AP) - House-Senate bargainers agreed Wednesday on a $417 billion defense bill that includes $25 billion for U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and funds to help battle Western wildfires.

The compromise measure, which is mostly for 2005, also has money for war refugees in Sudan and American diplomats in Baghdad and Kabul. And it will provide $25 million each for buttressing security this summer in Boston and New York as they host, respectively, the Democratic and Republican presidential nominating conventions.

Congress is expected to approve the legislation next week, lawmakers' last stretch of work before recessing until September.

With troops under fire in Iraq and Afghanistan, President Bush and members of both parties want the measure completed before the political party gatherings. Speed is also a factor because lawmakers and the Pentagon are not sure there would otherwise be enough cash to pay for the two wars in the final weeks of the government's budget year, which runs through Sept. 30.

http://apnews1.iwon.com/article/20040715/D83QSI981.html