THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, November 11, 1994 TAG: 9411110608
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
Aiming to boost morale for troops increasingly sent on risky missions abroad, the Pentagon's top leaders said Thursday they'll pump $2.7 billion more into military housing, cost-of-living allowances and programs such as child care.
``No weapon system is better than the people who operate and maintain it. It is crucial that we put people first in our priorities,'' Defense Secretary William Perry said at a Pentagon briefing.
Perry said he did not devise the plan with the expectation that more money will come from the new Republican majority in Congress. He said the money will come from cuts in long-term programs to modernize certain weapons, but he declined to specify which ones.
The Pentagon is considering amending or canceling several major weapons programs, including a new submarine for the Navy, the Marines' V-22 tilt-rotor aircraft, the Army's Comanche helicopter and the Air Force's F-22 futuristic jet fighter. Perry said he intends to announce those decisions sometime next month.
Perry, joined at the briefing by Gen. John Shalikashvili, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Pentagon is recommending that $450 million be spent each year over the next six years to improve conditions for the force of 1.6 million men and women. Some spending will begin within months, particularly to upgrade dilapidated housing that would otherwise have been closed for lack of maintenance money, he said.
That amounts to about a 5 percent increase in spending over what has been designated for such programs in the Pentagon's budget, which totaled $244 billion this year.
Perry noted that he was told during a recent visit to Europe about increased rates of spousal and child abuse among military families. He said some Air Force units are being deployed away from home at a rate four times higher than in 1989.
Perry's plan for fiscal 1996, which begins Oct. 1, 1995, includes:
Spending $296 million on family housing worldwide. The budget includes upgrades on about 10,000 homes that are threatened with closure because of lack of maintenance and improvements in some 5,000 barracks spaces for singles.
Spending $60 million on compensation improvements, including a new cost-of-living allowance for military living in high-cost areas.
Increasing the basic allowances by up to $120 monthly to defray off-base housing costs.
Spending $94 million on child care for 38,000 couples, programs to prevent and reduce family violence, and recreation programs.
KEYWORDS: MILITARY BUDGET DEFENSE SPENDING by CNB