President signs bills boosting intelligence, defense spending

CRAWFORD, Texas -- President Bush signed a bill Friday to raise intelligence spending but warned Congress he won't turn over documents that he thinks could compromise national security.

The president also signed a $343 billion defense bill that gives what he wanted for his missile defense program, provides the largest military pay raises in two decades and sets up a new round of base closures.

Bases will be closed in 2005, two years later than Bush had wanted. He said in a written statement that he regretted the postponement.

In signing the intelligence bill, Bush objected to a provision that he said "purports to require" the administration to file written reports to congressional committees on intelligence failures.

He said in a separate statement that he reserved the authority to "withhold information the disclosure of which could impair foreign relations, the national security, the deliberative processes of the executive or the performance of the executive's constitutional duties."

He said his intent was to "protect intelligence sources and methods and other exceptionally sensitive matters" and did not rule out providing verbal briefings to congressional panels.

The intelligence bill places new emphasis on traditional human spy networks in combating terrorism.

It would increase spending by 8 percent, compared with the 7 percent increase Bush sought. Besides focusing new attention and money on spies, the new law aims to increase the portion of collected data to be analyzed and turned into useful information.

Intelligence spending levels generally are kept secret. In 1998, the CIA revealed in response to a lawsuit filed by the Federation of American Scientists that spending totaled $26.6 billion in 1997 and $26.7 billion in 1998, the federation's Steven Aftergood said. Since then, it's been estimated at about $30 billion a year.