Washington -- Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen today released details of President Clinton's Fiscal Year (FY) 2000 defense budget. The budget requests USD267.2 billion in budget authority and USD260.8 billion in outlays for the Department of Defense (DoD). Proposed budget authority for FY 2000-2005 reflects President Clinton's plan to make available to DoD USD112 billion in additional resources, USD12.6 billion of which was added in FY 2000. This would constitute the first sustained long-term increase in defense funding since the end of the Cold War. Secretary Cohen said that the USD112 billion increase would "meet the most pressing requirements identified by our senior military leadership." He added, "Although U.S. forces continue to accomplish their missions splendidly, there are warning signs of potential problems. Recruiting and retention are increasingly difficult, readiness harder to maintain, and weapons modernization tougher to fund sufficiently. This budget will address these warnings." To improve recruiting and retention, the budget includes the largest military pay raise in a generation and restoration of the traditional military retirement benefit of 50 percent of base pay after 20 years of service. The budget also includes USD53 billion for procurement of more modern weapons in FY 2000. Procurement is projected to reach nearly USD62 billion in FY 2001, surpassing the USD60 billion goal previously set by the Clinton Administration. DoD leaders consider this higher modernization spending to be essential to the future readiness and battlefield superiority of U.S. forces. Secretary Cohen stressed that the President's funding increases do not diminish the Department's resolve to shrink the portion of its budget consumed by infrastructure. To that end, he renewed his call for Congress to approve two more rounds of base closure and realignment (BRAC) for FY 2001 and 2005.
