Bush to Ask for $70 Bn in Partial 2009 War Funding

The funding would be in addition to the administration's request for the regular Pentagon budget which is to be presented next week.

The Bush administration will ask the U.S. Congress next week for $70 billion to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other related operations for part of the 2009 fiscal year, the Pentagon said on Monday.

"We'll send up the fiscal year '09 budget (next Monday)," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. "It will have a request for an emergency allowance to support activities related to the global war on terror into 2009 ... in the amount of 70 billion."

The funding would be in addition to the administration's request for the regular Pentagon budget which is to be presented next week.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, Congress has approved $691 billion to pay for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and such related activities as Iraq reconstruction, the Congressional Budget Office said last week.

Of the total, the CBO estimated that $440 billion had been spent on the war in Iraq.

In past years, members of Congress have pressed the administration to submit full war funding requests together with the regular Pentagon budget so that both can be subjected to the same level of scrutiny at the same time.

The administration has requested a total of nearly $190 billion in war funding for the 2008 fiscal year.

But Congress has not approved that amount.

In December, it approved a $70 billion "bridge fund" in partial war funding for the current fiscal year.

The 2009 U.S. fiscal year begins on Oct. 1, 2008.