🚀 go-pugleaf

Bush to spend $290 million to hire Iraqi firefighters, $150 million to
build a new Iraqi children's hospital, $100 million to relocate 100
Iraqi witnesses ($1M apiece!),  etc. etc. etc.

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September 22, 2003
AP: Bush Paper Details Iraq Spending Plan
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The administration wants $100 million for an Iraqi
witness protection program, $290 million to hire, train and house
thousands of firefighters, $9 million to modernize the postal service,
including establishment of ZIP codes.

A Bush administration document, distributed to members of Congress and
obtained by The Associated Press, goes far beyond the details
officials have publicly provided for how they would spend the $20.3
billion they have requested for Iraqi reconstruction.

The 53 pages of justifications flesh out the size of the task of
rebuilding the country, almost literally brick by brick. It also
paints a painstaking picture of the damage Iraq has suffered.

``The war and subsequent looting destroyed over 165 firehouses
throughout the country. There are no tools or equipment in any
firehouse,'' according to the report, written by the Coalition
Provisional Authority, the U.S.-led organization now running Iraq.

The report's estimated cost of rebuilding Iraq's fire service,
including hiring and training 5,000 firefighters: $290 million.

At another point, the report says the headquarters and three regional
offices of the border police ``will require complete renovation.'' Two
thousand new recruits must be trained because the agency previously
used conscripts, ``almost all of whom deserted.''

Reviving that and other border protection agencies should cost $150
million, the report said.

The proposal was part of the $87 billion plan that President Bush sent
Congress on Sept. 7 for Iraq and Afghanistan. The biggest piece of
that package was $66 billion to finance U.S. military operations in
both countries and elsewhere.

``Expeditious approval of this emergency appropriation is critical for
the coalition to lay the groundwork for an Iraq governed by and for
the people of Iraq, to serve as the model for democracy in the Mideast
and to help fight the global war on terrorism by providing an
alternative framework for governance,'' the request states.

Congress, just beginning work on Bush's proposal, is expected to
approve it largely intact. But the political soft spot has been the
$20.3 billion for reconstruction, because of record federal deficits
facing this country and demands by Democrats for increased domestic
security spending.

``The administration fought against a $200 million boost for America's
police officers, firefighters and paramedics,'' Sen. Robert Byrd,
D-W.Va., said Monday at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing.
``But Iraqi first responders would get $290 million through this''
Bush proposal.

Byrd made his comments at a hearing where L. Paul Bremer, the U.S.
administrator in Iraq, testified that the plan would help prevent
terrorists from establishing a foothold there.

Other projects and their estimated costs listed in the report include:

--Spend $100 million to protect -- and perhaps relocate overseas --
100 witnesses and their families who testify against former government
officials, terrorist groups or organized crime figures. ``Without an
effective witness protection program, it is simply not possible to
prosecute these cases,'' the report says.

--Hire, train and equip 20,000 guards to protect Iraqi government
facilities, $67 million.

--Retain 500 experts to investigate crimes against humanity by former
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's government, for $100 million.

--Build and modernize 26 jails and prisons for 8,500 inmates, $99
million.

--Spend $9 million to modernize Iraq's postal system, including
establishment of ZIP codes.

--Rebuild the country's badly damaged electrical system, install at
least 11 40-megawatt gas turbine generation plants and several larger
units, replace power lines and towers, $2.9 billion.

--Spend $55 million for an oil pipeline repair team that can respond
quickly to new reports of sabotage or other problems, as part of a
$2.1 billion effort to rebuild Iraq's oil industry.

--Use $1 billion to provide drinkable water to 75 percent of Iraq's
urban population, an additional 2.7 million people, up from 60 percent
today. An additional $530 million would be spent to serve 75 percent
of the rural population, an additional 1.3 million, many of whom now
rely on water trucked in as infrequently as once every 10 days.
Eventual goal: serve 90 percent of the population, $2.8 billion.

--Spend $130 million to construct 10 major irrigation and drainage
projects.

--Use $125 million to rebuild railroad tracks.

--Start building at least 3,528 new houses next year as part of a $100
million housing initiative.

--Designate $150 million to start building a new children's hospital
in Basra.

--Spend $35 million to subsidize on-the-job training for private
businesses.