By Emelie Rutherford
The White House budget chief yesterday emphasized the president plans to veto the fiscal year 2008 war supplemental bill if lawmakers add unrequested funding, suggesting that veto threat extends to added vehicles and weapons if they increase the price of the $108 billion proposal.
Talking to reporters after Senate appropriators grilled him on the war-funding request, Office of Management and Budget Director Jim Nussle said: “Our only two caveats that the president’s put out there is that it’s for the troops and that it’s under the $108.1 billion requested.”
Senate appropriators yesterday cited sundry domestic needs they would like to add on to the FY ’08 war supplemental. In recent months House Appropriations Defense subcommittee (HAC-D) Chairman John Murtha (D-Pa.) has told reporters he wants to add Boeing [BA] C-17 cargo airplanes and Lockheed Martin‘s [LMT] C-130 transport aircraft to the request.
Nussle yesterday said President Bush is fixed on the $108.1 billion figure.
“What I hear from what Jack Murtha is considering, is that it’s above the request, and so that’s why I restate that,” Nussle said, when asked about the powerful lawmaker’s talk of adding aircraft. “My thought is that it may be more than the requested amount already.”
Members of the Senate Appropriations Committee (SAC) during a hearing yesterday on the FY ’08 supplemental cited no war-related systems they’re eyeing adding. Sen. Bryon Dorgan (D-N.D.) told reporters he has not been involved in any discussions regarding aircraft adds, noting the committee has not yet put together its mark of the bill.
SAC Chairman Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) said the committee will mark up its version of the bill “in the next few weeks,” saying the legislation will “meet the needs of our troops and the American people.”
Byrd bashed the president’s veto threat yesterday, noting billions of dollars are being spent to rebuild Iraq and declaring, “I say charity begins at home.”
“We will once again take good care of our troops, but we must also invest in our economy and take care of our people here at home,” Byrd said. “The well is running dry, and it is time to prime the pump.”
A Byrd aide said the full committee will be the first to mark up the bill for the Senate, and because it is a supplemental it will not be marked up by the defense subcommittee (SAC-D) first.
The House Appropriations Committee could mark up its version of the supplemental as soon as next week, “but it could go later,” said a spokeswoman for Chairman David Obey (D- Wis.). The HAC-D–like the SAC-D–will not mark up the supplemental measure. The HAC-D has already sent the full committee its version of the bill, a Murtha spokesman said.
Senators on both sides of the aisle criticized the president’s threat of a veto and talked of looming domestic spending needs during yesterday’s SAC hearing, at which Nussle was the sole witness.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said she doesn’t think she can support the FY ’08 supplemental at its present size, and suggested breaking it down to “know where every dime goes.”
Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) said he voted against the war in Iraq, but has been voting to fund it. “Now I’ve reached a different conclusion,” he said, criticizing “sending a blank check to the president for this war.”
The Pentagon in early March sent lawmakers a modification of its lingering FY ’08 war supplemental request, because of theater-related changes since the proposal was sent to Congress last year. Lawmakers have already appropriated $86.8 billion of the initial request focused on the Army and Marine Corps operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Last month’s informal update seeks less money that the initial request for procurement efforts such as the Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles, while eyeing more funds for KC- 130J tanker aircraft, perimeter security and imagery tools (Defense Daily, March 26).
Nussle yesterday said he is not aware of any further revisions being prepared for lawmakers.
“I’m not aware of anything new. This was the one that they were doing,” he told reporters about the 22-page document sent to lawmakers the second week of March. “That facts on the ground could change, but I’m not aware of anything that is new that would be requested.”
Defense Secretary Robert Gates last week said the FY ’09 war-related supplemental is being developed and may emerge soon. Nussle yesterday told reporters he has been working on the FY ’09 supplemental but is “not aware that it’s ready for transmittal any time soon.”
“Judging from past experience, and even a little bit from today, we’re barely able to see the Congress consider ’08 [supplemental], so putting ’09 out there is not something that is necessarily a burning priority,” he said. “This is the priority. We’ve got shortfalls coming as a result of not having the [’08] supplemental, so that’s priority one.”
The Pentagon needs the supplemental funds by Memorial Day, Nussle told the SAC yesterday.
“Failure to act quickly could result in an unfortunate replay of what happened last December when furlough warnings were issued by the Department of Defense, so I suggest that no one here believes that that would be an acceptable outcome,” he said.
Nussle drew an angry response from several senators for his introductory comments, in which he talked of the supplemental being the “last big money train” before the presidential election.