By Xinhua
Washington : The US House of Representatives passed a revised defence authorisation bill after President George W. Bush vetoed the original one that drew complaints from the Iraqi government.
Those complaints prompted Bush to veto the original defence bill last month.
He said a provision in the bill, which would allow victims of terrorism to be awarded compensation from frozen foreign assets of “state sponsors of terror”, could have crippled the fledgling Iraqi government with billions of US dollars in liability.
The revised bill, which the House passed by a vote of 369-46, excludes Iraq from the provision, but other so called “state sponsors of terrorism”, such as Iran and Syria, could see frozen assets used as compensation.
All together, the bill allows the Pentagon to spend $696 billion in fiscal year 2008 that begun Oct 1, 2007. Out of the total, $189 billion are earmarked for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
However, the defence authorisation bill only authorise the amount the Pentagon could use and there is no guarantee the military will get the money.
A separate defence appropriation bill is needed to distribute the funds.