WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush wants to nearly double spending on homeland security by pouring unprecedented amounts of money into fighting bioterrorism, tightening border controls, improving airline security and helping firefighters.
Bush's first budget since the terror and anthrax attacks of last fall proposes $37.7 billion for homeland defense in the year that starts Oct. 1, compared with $19.5 billion in the current year.
The budget released Monday would add extra cash for faster anthrax tests, twice as many guards on the Canadian border, better equipment for firefighters and easier information-sharing among federal agencies.
Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said that beyond making the nation safer, the extra spending would make America a nicer place live by, for example, improving the health care system and local emergency services.
Homeland defense was one of few areas in the budget to get virtually everything its advocates sought.
``If there was any proposal linked to defeating terrorism or to making Americans more safe at home that had even a reasonable case for it, we agreed and rolled it into the budget,'' White House budget director Mitch Daniels said.
Among the highlights:
$5.9 billion to fight bioterrorism, which the budget plan calls ``a new American vulnerability laid bare'' by the anthrax attacks. A big infusions of cash would pay for research and development, state and local health systems, federal stockpiles for treating victims, and improved communications.
Almost $1.7 billion would go to the National Institutes of Health for research on developing vaccines, tests, therapies and other work to fight anthrax and other biological agents. The Defense Department would get $420 million to study bioterrorists and ways to fight biological weapons.
Some $851 million would be set aside to help the government respond to a bioattack, including stockpiling antibiotics to treat 20 million people, improving the nation's supply of smallpox vaccine, and improving food safety.
$3.5 billion to help ``first responders'' such as firefighters, police and rescue squads. The money would go for personal protective equipment, emergency medical gear, detection equipment for biological and chemical agents, communications and other items. It also could be used to conduct more frequent terrorism drills, improve emergency communication systems, and set up a new Homeland Security Corps.
$10.6 billion for protecting borders, ``targeting illegal traffic while welcoming legitimate travelers.'' The budget would more than double the number of Border Patrol agents and inspectors across the northern border, which ``has become an attractive route for potential terrorists,'' Bush's budget proposal avers. The budget includes $380 million to set up a reliable way to track the entry and exit of immigrants, especially those seen as security threats.
$722 million to improve communication among federal agencies and with states and other jurisdictions. To illustrate the need, the budget plan says Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, entered the United States legally and was granted permanent resident alien status despite a terrorist past. ``Improved information-sharing could make a repeat of such tragic mistakes unlikely,'' it said.
The budget also includes $4.8 billion for aviation security through the new Transportation Security Agency and $12.2 billion scattered elsewhere throughout the government, areas highlighted in the budget book with a small photo of a Minuteman soldier.
