Officials Urge Quick Action on Supplemental Funding Request

(Source: U.S. Department of Defense; issued May 5, 2008)

WASHINGTON --- Office of Management and Budget officials today urged Congress to act quickly on the White House’s request for $102 billion in supplemental funding to cover military operations in the war on terror through fiscal 2008, which ends Sept. 30.

If Congress doesn’t act by the Memorial Day recess on the fiscal 2008 supplemental budget request, the Defense Department may have to begin furloughing civilian employees by the end of June, OMB officials said.

The White House sent a $70 billion fiscal 2009 supplemental budget request to Congress on May 2 to carry the war effort past the end of the current fiscal year.

“We are urging Congress to move quickly on [the fiscal 2008 supplemental funding request] so that we don’t have to take the disruptive steps that are necessary to reprogram funds and do things that make it hard for us to meet our obligations,” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said today.

Congress is scheduled to begin its Memorial Day recess May 26.

Civilian employee furloughs are a last resort, Whitman said, but might become necessary if Congress does not act. The department would make other financial shifts before considering furloughs, he said.

“First, you would do things like shifting personnel accounts so that the services would all reach depletion at the same time,” Whitman said. The services would also examine operations and maintenance funds to see what they could slow or halt, he added.

Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said the military needs the supplemental appropriations bill passed before Congress leaves town for the Memorial Day recess.

“We stop paying soldiers on the 15th of June, and we have precious little flexibility with respect to that,” Mullen said during an interview with Roll Call newspaper last week. “Clearly, that creates incredible constraints and difficulties for us.”

DoD would get the lion’s share of the $70 billion supplemental request President Bush submitted to Congress May 2, at $66 billion. Some $4 billion would go to the State Department and other international operations.

The 2009 supplemental request provides $45.1 billion to fund combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, $3.7 billion to expand the Afghan security forces, $2 billion for counterinsurgency training for the Iraqi security forces and $1.7 billion for the Commanders’ Emergency Response Program in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The budget also covers increased fuel costs and funds to combat improvised explosive devices – the leading killer of Americans in Iraq.

The fiscal 2009 supplemental request also asks for $400 million for traumatic brain injury research and other psychological health issues for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Pentagon Expects War Funding by Memorial Day

(Source: U.S. Department of Defense; issued May 6, 2008)

WASHINGTON --- U.S. lawmakers have informed Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates that they expect to pass the remaining $108 billion of the fiscal 2008 budget by their Memorial Day recess on May 24, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said at a Pentagon news conference today.

Gates sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi yesterday to say he was “encouraged” to hear that Congress intends to pass the remainder of the current fiscal year’s budget. But he added that military officials will continue to plan for contingencies if the money isn’t appropriated.

If the bill isn’t approved or if President Bush won’t sign it, the military will be forced to “reprogram” money from the Air Force and Navy to pay soldiers, because the Army can sustain its payroll only through June 15, Morrell told reporters.

But the reprogramming measures aren’t a cure-all, Morrell noted. “None of those efforts buy us much time -- we’re talking about a few weeks,” he said. After that, he said, the department faces the possibility of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan not getting paid.

The $108 billion is “urgently needed” to finance the global war on terror through the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, Morrell said. “We here at the Pentagon have been financing those wars by borrowing from our payroll accounts,” he said, “but those accounts are about to run dry.”

If the funding isn’t approved, the department may issue civilian furlough notices after June 1.

“We’re getting down to crunch time,” Morrell said. He added that Gates is “taking the leaders at their word that this will be done by Memorial Day.”

The White House requested an additional, or “supplemental,” $70 billion last week to serve as a bridge in funding into fiscal 2009, which begins Oct. 1 of this year.

In other topics at the briefing, Morrell defended the military’s Mine-Resistant, Ambush-Protected vehicles after a reporter asked how two soldiers were killed in an MRAP vehicle in April. Morrell declined to give the cause of death of the soldiers, saying such specific information amounts to “aiding and abetting the enemy.”

“People question the survivability of these vehicles,” Morrell said. “But I can tell you that nobody in this building and nobody downrange is at all questioning the enhanced survivability that MRAPs provide. There have been over 100 attacks on MRAP vehicles, and a relatively small number of injuries related to those attacks -- and far fewer deaths -- associated with them.

“We are facing an agile and deadly enemy in Iraq who is constantly adjusting to meet our new and improved vehicles that we put in the field,” Morrell said. “There is no vehicle that we can produce that will completely protect our troops. There is no hull that we can build that is impenetrable. These MRAPs are as good as can be made today. That is why commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan are requesting more of them and raving about their increased protection.”

The Defense Department met its goal of delivering more than 1,500 MRAPs in theater by the end of 2007. Since then, the total delivery has reached more than 5,500.

Also at the briefing, Morrell dismissed suggestions that Marines may be redirected from Iraq to Afghanistan this year. “We’ve made a commitment to our troops and their families for a 12-month ‘dwell time,’” Morrell said, referring to a Pentagon directive that troops will have at least a year at home before being deployed again.

While the administration and commanders in Afghanistan are interested in increasing troop strength there, military leaders won’t consider additions beyond what has already been approved until troop strength in Iraq is fewer than 15 brigade-size combat units, Morrell said. Such a transfer of troops “is not seriously being considered in this building,” he said.

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Bush Signs $162 Billion Supplemental War Funding Bill

(Source: US Department of Defense; issued June 30, 2008)

WASHINGTON --- President Bush today signed a $162 billion supplemental bill that prin****lly will fund U.S. military operations abroad. Bush thanked congressional leaders of both parties for agreeing to provide what he described as “vital funds” to men and women in uniform serving in harm’s way.

“I appreciate that Republicans and Democrats in Congress agreed to provide these vital funds without tying the hands of our commanders and without an artificial timetable of withdrawal from Iraq,” he said.

The bill takes shape as Iraq experiences the lowest levels of violence since March 2004. The legislation also comes to fruition as the last of the five Army brigades to deploy with the “troop surge” in Iraq prepares to return next month.

Bush announced the temporary 33,000-troop surge in January 2007 to tamp down violence in Iraq and help prepare Iraq’s national security forces to maintain security. The first surge brigade returned home in March, and the final redeployment next month will reduce the number of brigades in Iraq to 15.

“We welcome them home,” Bush said, referring to redeploying troops. “And with this legislation, we send a clear message to all that are serving on the front line that our nation continues to support them.”

The funding also provides servicemembers a more generous education package, which for the first time could be passed to family members if troops opt not to use it themselves. Bush said transferability of GI Bill education benefits helps fulfill a debt of gratitude the nation owes military families.

“They endure sleepless nights and the daily struggle of caring for children while a loved one is serving far from home,” he said. “We have a responsibility to provide for them, so I'm pleased that the bill I signed today includes an expansion of the GI Bill.

“It will help us to meet our responsibilities to those who support our troops every day, America's great military families,” he added.

Other items in the legislation include a $465 million initiative that partners the United States with Mexico and other Central American nations in an effort to crack down on violent drug-trafficking gangs. It provides nearly $2.7 billion in relief for states that experience disasters, such as the recent flooding and tornadoes in the American Midwest. The bill also expands unemployment insurance benefits.

The president praised the legislation as an example of successful bipartisan support for members of the U.S. military.

“This bill shows the American people that even in an election year, Republicans and Democrats can come together to stand behind our troops and their families,” he said.

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