General: White House budget games affecting readiness; billions more needed now

WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- The U.S. Army will need even more than the $84 billion it got in supplemental appropriations in 2006 to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2007, according to top service officials Tuesday.

They also expressed frustration with the White House's insistence on delaying asking Congress for war funding until February of every year, when the spending year is already half over. By the time Congress finishes hearings and passes a war spending bill -- which is separate from the annual budget -- there are only a few months left to use the money, and bills have already been paid by taking money out of procurement accounts for new weapons and vehicles. That in turn delays the replacement and upgrade of equipment destroyed in the war, which degrades training for troops deploying to Iraq.

"He has less than 50 percent of (the equipment) he's supposed to have training. That is not an army that is training properly," said Maj. Gen. Stephen M. Speakes, the Army's director of force development. "Can you do it? Yes. Is it the kind of burden you want to put on a soldier 12 months before he deploys?"

There is no accounting reason why the Army could not submit the 2008 supplemental request in February 2007 when the 2008 annual budget request goes up to Capitol Hill, said Lt. Gen. David Melcher, the deputy chief of staff for Army programming, materiel integration and management.

"If there was a desire to submit that in February that could easily be done," Melcher told reporters at the Association of the U.S. Army conference in Washington.

"From the Army's perspective, I think it would make good sense to submit the president's budget and the entire '08 supplemental at the same time ... I think it would be good to have openness about that, and articulate the need up front."

As of now, the 2007 supplemental request -- estimated by the Office of Management and Budget this summer to be about $110 billion -- will go to Capitol Hill with the 2008 budget

That practice began shortly after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Read the rest at UPI

Related Link:
Army personnel costs have doubled, Pentagon $2 billion short for 2007

Related Link:
Rumsfeld: Army on own in budget request