Foreign companies currently account for less than 1 percent of NASA's $9.4 billion procurement budget.

Significant parts of the procurement budget are already spent in areas of high unemployment, for example warship orders.

However, most independent analysts think that the annual procurement budget under existing Pentagon plans will have to increase by $20 billion to $30 billion.

The military procurement budget, which pays for new weapons, fell from a peak of $97 billion in 1985 to $44 billion today.

And the Pentagon has not allocated anywhere near 20 percent of the procurement budget for new programs.

Yet it is devoting most of its procurement budget to two relatively short-range tactical fighters to replace the F-15.

The Pentagon until now has been encouraging mergers as a way to cut costs as the military procurement budget has decreased.

Mr. Perry should also have been more aggressive in cutting bloated weapons procurement budgets.

EU procurement spending linked to research and development is less than 1% of that total procurement budget.

N.T.T.'s procurement budget - the number is not disclosed, but can be safely estimated at well beyond $20 billion a year - provides further largesse.