WASHINGTON, July 13 (UPI) -- President George W. Bush used his radio address Saturday to again press Congress to complete his legislative agenda before the August recess, warning that some military and national operations would be severely curtailed if it did not act.
"More that 100 days ago, I asked Congress to pass emergency funding to equip our armed forces and strengthen security at our airports," Bush said. Without Congress passing some 20 appropriation bills, "our military will need to start cannibalizing spare parts to keep equipment running."
Bush said the new Transportation Security Agency "will have to suspend the purchase and installation of up to 1,100 bomb detection systems, and the FAA may have to furlough up to 35,000 air traffic employees."
This is the second time that Bush has made the appeal, nudging primarily the Democratically controlled Senate to action in a ritual of blame over funding that has taken place in every recent political administration.
"Congress must fund our troops while they're fighting a war. And Congress must provide funds to continue improving security at our airports," Bush said. The House acted, the Senate must act."
He called for the defense appropriations bill to be on his desk by the end of the month.
Bush said that these bills are critical, but that "quick action on them does not and should not preclude simultaneous progress on other legislation."
Bush is pressing for trade promotion authority, making permanent the tax reductions he won last year and to work with him to pass a terrorism insurance bill. In all three areas, Bush's legislative program has had trouble with Senate Democrats. The Democrats argue that further tax reductions in the face of rising budget deficits is unwise and that other things like trade promotion authority and the terrorism insurance bill are weighted toward Republican business interests.
Bush has had more success with measures to restore investor confidence in the wake of recent corporate corruption like the WorldCom debacle. Only Friday, the Senate passed a strong measure to halt low cost, preferential loans by corporations to business executives.
Bush reiterated steps he proposed last week in a Wall Street address to counter corporate corruption:
-- Doubling jail time for financial fraud.
-- Creating a new task force at the Justice Department to go after business crime.
-- Setting aside $100 million to fund additional manpower and technology for the Securities and Exchange Commission, which regulations corporations.
"As part of this crackdown, I support the creation of a strong independent board that will provide effective oversight for the accounting profession," Bush said. The board would have the power to "monitor, investigate and enforce high ethical principles by punishing individual offenders."
