Center for Defense Information

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Congressional Add-Ons to the 1997 Military Budget:

Money Well Spent?

At the same time that funding for many federal programs is being cut, lawmakers are adding about $11 Billion to the Clinton Administration's $254 Billion fiscal 1997 military budget request! According to the Pentagon, only about half of the extra dollars Congress has added for weapons purchases accelerates programs already budgeted in long-range service plans. The remainder qualifies as pork. For the amount Congress is adding to the military budget, you could fund all of the following federal programs that have been targeted for elimination or cuts at their current funding levels for an entire year and still have left a billion dollars or more for deficit reduction:

  • Head Start early education ($3.4 billion)
  • Legal assistance for the poor ($278 million)
  • School-to-work opportunities ($190 million)
  • Vocational and adult education ($1.2 billion)
  • Low-income home energy assistance ($1 billion)
  • National Endowment for the Arts ($131 million)
  • Goals 2000 education improvement ($489 million)
  • Corporation for Public Broadcasting ($275 million)
  • Research on solar and renewable energy ($296 million)
  • Arms Control and Disarmament Agency ($46 million)
  • Summer youth employment and training ($635 million)
  • National Endowment for the Humanities ($129 million)
  • U.S. contribution to international peacekeeping ($440 million)
  • AmeriCorps grants to address community problems ($381 million)
  • Promotion of safe and drug-free schools and communities ($354 million)
  • Social services programs for children, youths, and families ($567 million)
  • Job Corps centers supporting economically disadvantaged youths ($1.1 billion)
  • U.S. aid to the former Soviet Union to help transport, store, and destroy weapons of mass destruction and prevent their spread to other countries ($295 million)

    Or you could fund at their current funding levels:

  • The Office of AIDS Research ($1.4 billion) for 9 years
  • The National Cancer Institute ($2.3 billion) for 6 years
  • The National School Lunch Program ($4.7 billion) for 3 years
  • U.S. foreign economic aid to developing nations; federal disaster relief or pollution control efforts; or FBI, drug, and other federal law enforcement (each about $7 billion) for 2 years
  • The entire federal court and prison system ($11 billion) for 1 year
    Prepared by Martin Calhoun, Senior Research Analyst, July 15, 1996.
    Source: Budget of the United States Government, Office of Management and Budget.