Defending our nation against its enemies is the first and fundamental commitment of the federal government. On September the 11th, 2001, America learned that oceans will no longer protect us from the threats of a new era. On that day, the President set in motion a relentless worldwide campaign against terrorists, in order to secure our homeland and to make the world a more peaceful place.

In September 2002, the President defined and sent to Congress the National Security Strategy of the United States of America. In it he offers a bold vision for protecting our Nation that realizes today’s new realities and new opportunities. It calls on America to use our position of unparalleled strength and influence to create a balance of power that favors freedom.

The strategy has three pillars:

• We will defend the peace by opposing and preventing violence by terrorists and outlaw regimes.
• We will preserve the peace by fostering an era of good relations among the world’s great powers.
• And we will extend the peace by seeking to extend the benefits of freedom and prosperity across the globe.

As the world’s most powerful nation, President Bush believes that the United States has a special responsibility to help make the world more secure.

Strengthening America’s Defense

President Bush made a clear commitment to provide the nation with the best trained, best equipped and most effective military force in the world – no matter what it takes. The President’s budget will enable the Department of Defense to continue waging an aggressive and global war on terrorism while supporting the transformation of our nation’s military capabilities. The budget also follows through on the President’s continued commitment to improving the quality of life for our military personnel and their families.

• President Bush’s budget proposed $379.9 billion for the Department of Defense, increasing defense spending by $15.3 billion.
• The budget fully reflects the Bush Administration’s defense strategy, which calls for a focus on countering 21st century threats such as terrorism.
• The United States must strengthen its defenses to protect the nation’s interests and to assure a leading role in global affairs.

The President believes that the men and women who choose to serve this country deserve not only our respect, but also our support in terms of pay, housing and other quality-of-life issues.

Increasing Military Pay

• The President is committed to taking good care of our military personnel and their families. His fiscal year 2004 budget builds on pay increases of 4% or more in the last two budgets.
• The budget funds a range of military pay increases from 2 to 6.25%, targeted by rank and years of service. These pay increases enhance our military’s ability to retain its most experienced, soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines.

Renovating Military Housing

The President is committed to a full range of quality of life programs, including the renovation of military housing.

• In 2002 President Bush made sure that there was an additional $400 million made available to improve military housing.
• The 2004 budget keeps the Department of Defense on track in its plan to eliminate inadequate military housing. 163,000 inadequate housing units will be eliminated by 2007.
• The Bush Administration proposes to reduce average out-of-pocket expenses for military families living in local communities to zero by 2005. During 2003, such expenses will drop to 7.5% from 15.0% in 2001.

Improving Military Training

• The FY 04 budget sustains increased funding levels for training from last year, so that U.S. forces are fully prepared for waging the war on terror and meeting other commitments. The budget robustly funds the Services’ training goals, as measured in aircraft flying hours, ship steaming days, and ground vehicle miles.

Winning the War on Terror

• In 2003, coalition forces acted with skill and bravery to liberate the Iraqi people and remove a grave and gathering danger to America and the world.
• In 2001, with less than a month’s notice, American and British forces joined with local anti-Taliban troops in an assault on the al Qaeda network and the Taliban regime that gave it safe harbor in Afghanistan.
• In both cases, decisive victories were achieved by integrating real time intelligence with sophisticated technologies in cooperation with indigenous forces.

Missile Defense

• During the 2000 campaign, President Bush said, “America’s development of a missile defense is a search for security, not a search for advantage.”
• The President is committed to developing effective missile defenses based on the best available technologies, to be deployed at the earliest possible date. These defenses will be designed to protect our deployed forces abroad, all 50 States, and our friends and allies overseas.
• In December 2001, following months of negotiations and discussions with Russia, the United States provided a formal six-month notice that it was withdrawing from the ABM Treaty.
• The President’s FY04 Budget provides over $9 billion to begin the deployment of defenses against long-range ballistic missile threats, including new interceptors to be deployed over the next two years.

Strengthen Intelligence

• The President proposed increases of between $2 billion and $3 billion in intelligence spending, to a total of nearly $35 billion.
• Included in that proposal are enhancements to the capabilities of the FBI and other law enforcement/intelligence agencies.

Stealth Ships/Long-Range Missiles

• The FY 03 budget funds four Trident ballistic missile submarines converted to submarines equipped with long-range cruise missiles.
• The Navy awarded a $2.9 billion contract to begin building so-called “stealth ships” that can better evade radar detection.

Strengthening Intelligence to Better Protect America

• In his State of the Union Address, President Bush announced a new initiative to better protect America by continuing to close the “seam” between analysis of foreign and domestic intelligence on terrorism. Elements of the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division, the DCI’s Counterterrorist Center, and the Department of Defense have come together to form a Terrorist Threat Integration Center to fuse and analyze all-source information related to terrorism.
• This new center is working to merge and analyze terrorist-related information collected domestically and abroad in order to form the most comprehensive possible threat picture.
• Since September 11, 2001, our government has been working together and sharing information like never before. The President is committed to ensuring that intelligence information from all sources is shared, integrated, and analyzed seamlessly – and then acted upon quickly.

Transforming the Military/Next Generation Weapons

The President also worked to fund the following next-generation weapons:

• Unmanned aerial vehicles such as those used in the war against terrorism, which provide greater, longer-endurance intelligence and combat capabilities directly to the war-fighter at far less cost and risk to military personnel than manned aircraft; 
• Unmanned underwater vehicles that can greatly extend the range and capabilities of submarines and surface ships at less cost and without risk to sailors; 
• The Army’s Land Warrior technology, which digitizes the communications and intelligence capabilities of the individual infantry soldier to enhance situational awareness and combat capability; 
• Small precision bombs, which increase the quantity of targets that each individual aircraft can strike;
• Bunker-defeating munitions to target the growing threats of deeply hidden weapons of mass destruction; and
• Space-based radar and space control systems, which enhance our surveillance capabilities and our capabilities to collect and utilize information from space.