Reagan to Propose Defense Spending Of $320.3 Billion in Fiscal 1987 Budget
WASHINGTON -- The fiscal 1987 budget that President Reagan will submit to Congress today seeks $320.3 billion for national defense, including $4.8 billion for the Strategic Defense Initiative and $1.4 billion for 21 new Trident D-5 submarine missiles, congressional sources said.</br></br>At the same time, Mr. Reagan intends to propose a cut of two-thirds in spending authority for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, including the termination of several popular housing and urban-aid programs, according to congressional and housing-industry sources.</br></br>The administration is portraying the president's request for the military as equivalent to a 3% increase above inflation. Defense budget analysts and congressional critics, however, said yesterday that the request amounts to a higher inflation-adjusted increase -- up to 8%, according to some calculations -- from the $286.7 billion in actual military spending authority this year. Before inflation adjustment, the increase would be 11.7%.</br></br>Congressional resistance to Mr. Reagan's budget is expected to be fierce. Sam Nunn (D., Ga.), the pro-defense ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the president will find it difficult to gain anything for the military beyond an adjustment for inflation in view of the steep cuts in domestic programs Mr. Reagan is proposing.</br></br>But Mr. Reagan and Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger are expected to press strongly for the administration request on grounds that it will help induce the Soviets to agree to an arms-control pact. The budget envisions that in 1991, the total defense budget will reach $405.9 billion.