NATION : No Billion for Pentagon: Sasser

WASHINGTON —  The chairman of a Senate panel on military construction said today that a Bush Administration request for $1.1 billion to renovate the Pentagon is “out of the question.”

Sen. James Sasser (D-Tenn.) acknowledged that the 47-year-old building is in need of repair but said the Administration’s call for $1.1 billion over seven years would be difficult to heed in a time of shrinking budgets.

“The military construction bill is going to get smaller not larger,” Sasser told Pentagon officials at a Senate hearing. “There’s simply no room for such an undertaking.”

The chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on military construction faulted past defense secretaries for failing to get the General Services Administration to provide sufficient funds for the building’s upkeep.

“I’m not persuaded that we ought to ask the taxpayers to come up with another billion dollars to provide new office space for those who work in the Pentagon and to expand it,” Sasser said. “Perhaps it’s time to take a hard look at scaling back some of the Pentagon staff.”