NEW YORK -- October 28 -- As the presidential campaign moves into its final days, one industry that has done particularly well during the Bush administration has a strong interest in the outcome: the arms industry. A new report from the World Policy Institute tracks how this critical sector has exerted influence over administration policies, and how it is "voting with its dollars" in the 2004 campaign.

"These have been boom years for the arms industry, with contracts for the top ten weapons contractors up 75% in the first three years of the Bush administration alone," notes William D. Hartung, the co-author of the study and the director of the Institute's arms project. "While some of this funding is related to the war in Iraq or the campaign against terrorism, much of it relates to Cold War relics like the F-22 combat aircraft or nuclear attack submarines that have little or no application to the threats we now face or the wars we are now fighting."

Among the report's key findings are the followings:

• Weapons Industry Contributions Tilt Towards Bush, Republicans George W. Bush and John Kerry have been the top two recipients of contributions from Political Action Committees and individuals associated with the arms industry in the 2004 election cycle, receiving $766,355 and $399,000 respectively, a roughly 2 to 1 margin in favor of President Bush. Of the more than $13 million in arms industry contributions in the 2004 election cycle, 62% went to Republican candidates or committees, while 38% went to Democratic candidates or committees, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. Vice President Cheney's former firm, Halliburton, which is involved in both Pentagon contracting and oil and gas ventures, has given 86% of its contributions to Republican candidates or committees and only 14% to Democratic candidates in the 2004 cycle.
• Contractors Have Thrived Under Bush Policies Contracts to the Pentagon's top ten contractors jumped from $46 billion in 2001 to $80 billion in 2003, an increase of nearly 75%. Halliburton's contracts jumped more than nine times their 2001 levels by 2003, from $400 million to $3.9 billion. Northrop Grumman's contracts doubled, from $5.2 billion to $11.1 billion, over the same time frame; and the nation's largest weapons contractor, Lockheed Martin, saw a 50% increase, from $14.7 billion to $21.9 billion.
• Ties That Bind - Contractor Connections to the Bush Administration When the Bush administration first took office, it appointed 32 executives, paid consultants, or major shareholders of weapons contractors to top policymaking positions in the Pentagon, the National Security Council, the Department of Energy (involved in nuclear weapons development), and the State Department. Since that time, the "revolving door" has continued to spin, including a high profile scandal in which Air Force procurement official Darleen Druyun pled guilty to criminal charges for negotiating for a position at Boeing while simultaneously negotiating with the company on the terms of a controversial scheme to lease 100 more Boeing 767 airliners for modification and use as aerial refueling tankers. Another controversial move involved Pentagon acquisition chief Edward "Pete" Aldridge's decision to move straight from Donald Rumsfeld's Pentagon to a position on the board of Lockheed Martin.
• Campaign Contrasts: How Would Bush or Kerry Victories Impact the Arms Industry's Bottom Line? In the shadow of the September 11th attacks and the "tough guy" atmosphere that has enveloped the presidential campaign, neither candidate has discussed holding the line on military spending, much less reducing it. Even in 2000, challenger George W. Bush implied that he would consider cutting Cold War era systems such as heavy armored vehicles and redundant fighter aircraft in an attempt to create a more agile fighting force. The main differences this time around are about where to spend national security dollars, not how much to spend. Candidate Kerry has indicated that he would take several billion dollars per year from the missile defense program and apply them towards his plan to increase the size of the Army by 40,000 troops while training more Special Forces units. Kerry would continue research and development on missile defense but postpone deployment until such time as objective testing indicated that a system was workable and effective. Kerry has also come out against research and development of a new generation of low-yield and bunker busting nuclear weapons, which could save hundreds of millions of dollars, a relatively small figure in the context of a $400 billion-plus military budget.
  
  Any savings in a Kerry administration - from deferring missile defense deployment and new nuclear weapons, or implementing a plan that could get U.S. troops out of Iraq more quickly - would have to be weighed against his commitments to increase spending on homeland security, for protecting ports and chemical and nuclear facilities, among other things. Kerry has also indicated the he would increase resources devoted to destroying and securing loose nuclear weapons and nuclear bomb-making materials in Russia and other states of concern, perhaps by several billion dollars per year. From the point a view of major contractors like Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon, a shift of funds from missile defense deployment to spending on military personnel or a more diverse set of technologies and personnel for homeland security could represent a net loss, but their other major lines of business would not be likely to change under a Kerryadministration.
  
  For the full report go to www.worldpolicy.org/projects/arms/reports.html

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