Defense Cost Understated, Senator Says : Budget Ups Spending $10 Billion More Than Announced--Chiles

The chairman of the Senate Budget Committee said today that the Pentagon’s 1988 spending proposal will actually increase military spending by $10 billion more than the Pentagon has said, and warned Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger that Congress is prepared “to give the budget a good scrub.”

For the fiscal year beginning next Oct. 1, President Reagan is seeking a $312-billion defense budget--a 3% increase after inflation and a rise of $22 billion.

But Sen. Lawton Chiles (D-Fla.) asserted that the Pentagon is asking for a real increase of $32 billion.

“It is clear that if Congress doesn’t exercise its responsibility to give the budget a good scrub, we risk spending a good bit more than we can afford,” Chiles said as he opened the budget meeting.

Impatience on ‘Star Wars’

Chiles also said Congress is getting impatient for the Pentagon to explain its strategy for President Reagan’s space defense shield, known as “Star Wars.”

“There has been so little to go on, it is difficult to support this growth,” said Chiles, referring to Weinberger’s request to boost spending to $5.78 billion on the Strategic Defense Initiative, as “Star Wars” is formally known.

The Pentagon is also asking Congress for $500 million more to spend on SDI this year above the $3.5 billion previously approved.

Summit Question

And Chiles questioned whether the Administration ought to have discussed, at the U.S.-Soviet summit last October the possible elimination of all ballistic nuclear missiles without first assuring rough equality between North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Warsaw Pact conventional forces in Europe.

“I think we are a long way from putting a proposal on the table if we don’t know what we need on the conventional side, and if NATO has problems,” Chiles said.

Weinberger countered Chiles’ question on the growth in Pentagon spending on programs, or the acquisition of new weapons systems, saying that “there is little that is actually new in the 1988 and 1989 budgets. We are continuing previous programs.”

The defense secretary also said the Pentagon officials who direct “Star Wars” research are prepared to testify before the committee.