Sources: Bush wants $80B more for Iraq, Afghanistan
Request could be announced as early as Tuesday
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration soon will ask Congress for about $80 billion in additional funding for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, congressional sources said Monday.
But the sources cautioned that the exact amount of the request was not set yet.
One administration source and one congressional source said the White House Office of Management and Budget could announce the request as early as Tuesday.
Those and several other sources cautioned it may be delayed because the figures were still being decided.
White House aides refused to comment on the timing or the amount of the request.
The White House has made clear for months its intention to ask Congress for tens of billions more to sustain the U.S. missions.
Both Republican and Democratic congressional sources briefed by the administration told CNN a supplemental funding request could include additional money for relief in Asian countries ravaged by last month's tsunami.
Congressional aides told The Associated Press that about 75 percent of the $80 billion would probably be earmarked for the Army, which is doing most of the fighting in Iraq.
Some of the money might be designated for a new embassy in Baghdad, which has been projected to cost as much as $1.5 billion, the AP reported.
Another item the request might include could go toward helping Afghanistan fight drug trafficking, one aide told the AP.
Money also might be requested to help Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, two new leaders the Bush administration hopes will be U.S. allies, the AP reported.
Congress approved $25 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan military operations in August, and had signed off on $180 billion before that -- $120 billion for Iraq and $60 billion for Afghanistan.
If the latest request stays at $80 billion and is approved, it would push the total authorized for the wars in those countries and the global anti-terrorism effort to more than $280 billion since the first money was appropriated shortly after the attacks of September 11, 2001, the AP reported.
The administration will formally submit its funding request February 7, when the White House sends its fiscal 2006 budget to Congress.
A semi-annual report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office scheduled to be released Tuesday was expected to include a projection of war costs, the AP reported.
The CBO projected last September that the wars would cost $1.4 trillion over 10 years at current levels of operations, and $400 billion less if they were gradually reduced, according to the AP report.
Iraq funding was a critical issue during the 2004 election because the Democratic nominee, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, and his running mate, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, voted against an $87 billion supplemental funding bill in 2003 to protest the Bush policy in Iraq.
CNN's Dana Bash, Ed Henry, Ted Barrett and Steve Turnham contributed to this report.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
