By Jen DiMascio
The president yesterday asked Congress to approve $515.4 billion to fund the Pentagon’s basic operations in fiscal year 2009–along with an initial $70 billion placeholder request for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
That represents a 7.5 percent increase, or 35.9 billion more than what Congress approved last year, according to Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
“A more detailed request will be submitted this spring, when the department has a better picture of what level of funding will be required,” Gates said.
Pentagon officials also stressed that they are waiting for Congress to take action on $102 billion of the $189 billion the Pentagon requested in war funding for FY ’08
Tina Jonas, the Pentagon comptroller, and Vice Adm. Steve Stanley, the Joint Staff’s director of force structure, resources and assessment, turned on pressure for Congress to pass the remaining FY ’08 supplemental, saying that money for personnel will begin to dry up early in the summer.
The decision not to provide details on the supplemental was chafing lawmakers across the Potomac yesterday.
“We all understand that there is a level of unpredictability with such budget estimates, but it is critical that we attempt to plan for expenses we know are coming. I have heard that the President and OMB (Office of Management and Budget) are delaying because they are waiting for the next report from General Petraeus before putting together a full war budget plan,” Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement. “This explanation is astonishing. Can you imagine President Truman passing the buck on the budget to General MacArthur during the Korean conflict?”
Like last year, the defense budget with emergency supplemental requests might wind up the largest, in real terms, since World War II, according to an analysis by Steven Kosiak, vice president of budget studies for the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. The administration’s plan for budgets between FY ’10 and FY ’13 decline by 1.5 percent. “Thus, the administration is proposing that the buildup begun, in earnest, after the terrorist attacks of September 2001, should come to an end in FY 2010,” Kosiak wrote in a report released yesterday.
The last official budget in President Bush’s administration requests $183.8 billion for modernization–a 4.7 percent increase over the level Congress approved last year. That includes $104.2 billion for procurement and $79.6 billion for research and development.
According to an analysis by McAleese & Associates, the Pentagon’s estimate last year overshot procurement accounts by 5.7 percent. The department underestimated on the research side by 3.1 percent, the analysis showed.
Of the half-trillion Pentagon request, the Navy is asking for 149.3 billion, the Air Force $143.9 billion and the Army $140.7 billion. The defense-wide request totals $81.6 billion.
It includes close to $500 million for the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO). That provides for the organization structure, networking and ongoing research efforts, Stanely said.
The supplemental request for JIEDDO in FY ’08 was fully funded, Jonas said.
Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.), ranking member of the House Armed Services seapower subcommittee, praised the budget for covering immediate needs for the Defense Department but raised concerns about the future.
“I remain concerned that the tyranny of the urgent will override the importance of investing adequately in research and development to maintain America’s military superiority in future decades,” Bartlett said in a statement.