White House to ask for 4.8 percent boost for Pentagon

WASHINGTON — Seeking to bolster and reshape the Army and Marine Corps but hold the line on spending for new weapons systems, the Bush administration will ask Congress on Monday to boost Pentagon spending to $419.3 billion in 2006, an increase of 4.8 percent.

President Bush also will call for cuts in payments to farmers and work on a nuclear-waste storage site in Nevada, according to documents and federal officials. He also will propose boosting the size of Pell grants for low-income college students.

Bush administration officials also revealed new details of some health proposals the president will unveil. Among them, Bush will propose $3,000 tax credits to encourage people who don't have public or employer-provided health insurance to buy coverage.

The Pentagon budget request, which will not include money to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, reflects a mandate by the White House to cut spending on military programs not directly related to the war in Iraq or the fight against terror.

The Pentagon last February estimated it would need $424 billion in 2006 and $445 billion in 2007. The request to be presented Monday is less generous, but $19.2 billion more than the Pentagon's $400.1 billion budget this year.

But the Pentagon does not plan to stick to its spending diet over the long term, according to documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times and analysts familiar with the budget.

The Pentagon's request for procurement money, used for new technology and weapons, is a relatively modest $78 billion for next year — a cut of $100 million over its current budget. But that number would climb rapidly in future years, to $118.6 billion in 2011.

Overall, Pentagon spending would hit $502.3 billion in 2011, under current forecasts. The reduced rate of growth in 2006 is part of a White House effort to shrink the federal deficit.

"The Pentagon did this in response to pressure from the White House to find savings in the immediate term for deficit reduction," said Loren Thompson, a military analyst with the Lexington Institute.

The request will be part of a roughly $2.5 trillion federal budget request by Bush. It comes in addition to the $25 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan already appropriated by Congress. And the White House soon will request an additional $80 billion in emergency spending for the wars.

The 2006 budget plan includes funding to restructure the Army and add more combat and support units to the Marine Corps. It also would increase money spent on Special Operations forces. The Army is in the process of reshaping its fighting force into brigades, each fully equipped to handle a wide range of threats, rather than traditional and much larger divisions, each specializing in a different fighting task.

Details of the supplemental war-funding measure, expected next week, will reveal additional Bush administration plans for the military.

The administration's plan would cut its controversial missile-defense program by 22 percent, allocating $7.8 billion in 2006 compared with $10 billion this year.

Among the military services, the Air Force, with its raft of costly airplane and helicopter programs, would continue to receive the most funding — $127.5 billion. But the F/A-22 fighter purchase would be cut from 277 planes to 180, as was expected, saving $15.5 billion over six years.

The Navy and the Marine Corps, with their own aircraft and ship fleets to build and maintain, would receive $125.6 billion. The Army's budget would decrease, to $100 billion, even though that branch is bearing the brunt of the burden in Iraq and Afghanistan. That is because many Army weapons programs are less costly than those of the other services, and because the bulk of the supplemental money the Bush administration plans to request to fight the wars will go to the Army.

The plan also would add 1,200 Special Operations troops and increase military base salaries by 3.1 percent.

Nonmilitary budget items were reported by The Associated Press.