Untitled Document
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.
