By Ann Roosevelt
The Army’s new Chief of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey has notified the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) the service has no unfunded priorities for fiscal year 2012, but still might call for funds.
Just days after being sworn in as chief of staff, Dempsey sent a letter April 15 to HASC Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-Wash.) saying the FY ’12 budget submission “reflects funding for the highest priorities of the Army.”
Thus, “the Army will not present any unfunded requirements” and will try to fund all service requirements with those funds appropriated by Congress.
By contrast, the Navy, Marines and Air Force have submitted lists totaling more than $1 billion.
However, Dempsey’s letter states, “there may be fact of life changes that we will ask for your support to mitigate,” as the service executes FY ’12 programs.
The Army is committed to providing the best force for the nation, and the best environment for its volunteer soldiers and families, and the FY ’12 budget submission keeps the service on that track, Dempsey’s memo said.
Most of the high dollar unfunded priority lists over the past decade stem from conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq, though modernization was a driver before 9/11. Citing “a mismatch between the resources we have and the requirements we face,” then-Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki offered a list of unfunded Army FY ’00 priorities totaling $2.4 billion (Defense Daily, Oct. 22, 1999).
That’s almost exactly half the amount the next Chief of Staff Gen. Pete Schoomaker requested for mostly operationally-related unfunded priorities for FY ’06–a total of $4.778 billion (Defense Daily, March 7, 2005).
After Defense Secretary Robert Gates reminded service chiefs to run unfunded requirements past him as required by law, such requests from all services dropped. The Army’s unfunded priority request for FY ’10 fell to $952.8 million.