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Dems aim to increase army size |
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By The Hill Staff
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Posted: 07/13/05 12:00 AM [ET] |
A team of Senate and House Democrats today are planning to introduce legislation today aimed at significantly increasing size of the U.S. Army.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), ranking member of the Senate Armed Services (SASC) airland subcommittee, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), a SASC member, and Reps. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) and Mark Udall (D-Colo.), both members of the House Armed Services committee, are pressing for the passage of the United States Army Relief Act.
The legislation seeks to raise the cap of the Army’s end strength, said an aide to Tauscher.
The Army already is working on increasing its troop levels by 30,000. Army chief of staff, Gen. Peter Schoomaker, has said on numerous occasions that it costs about $1.2 billion a year for every 10,000 people added to the Army.
Both the House and the Senate have called for an increase in troop levels in their 2006 defense authorization bill and it is likely that troop levels will be increased when the conferees meet. Roxana Tiron |
