Facts on Iraq reconstruction

By The Associated Press
40 minutes ago



Quick facts on Iraq reconstruction:

• Since 2003, Congress has appropriated about $47.5 billion while the Iraqis have budgeted $50.6 billion. International contributions have totaled $15.8 billion.

• The U.S. has allocated most of its money, but Iraq hasn't. In 2006 and 2007, for example, Iraq designated $16.3 billion as its capital budget, which is used to invest in reconstruction projects. But it spent only $2.9 billion.

• The Treasury Department estimates that Iraqi oil production this year will generate $35.4 billion, or 84 percent of Baghdad's revenue.

• Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, estimates that because the price of oil has increased sharply, the country's oil revenue will probably be closer to $60 billion.

• Iraq's 2008 budget of $46.8 billion was calculated based on $57 per barrel oil, roughly half the current market rate.


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Obama asks Congress for extra $83.4 bln for military

09 Apr 2009 22:45:24 GMT
Source: Reuters
WASHINGTON, April 9 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama asked the U.S. Congress for an additional $83.4 billion to fund the military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan on Thursday, saying the security situation along the Afghan-Pakistan frontier was urgent.

"The Taliban is resurgent and al Qaeda threatens America from its safe haven along the Afghan-Pakistan border," Obama said in a letter to Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House of Representatives, that was released by the White House.

Obama said 95 percent of the $83.4 billion in supplemental funds he was requesting would go to support U.S. military operations in Iraq and the U.S. effort to disrupt and defeat al Qaeda.