White House Is Trimming Army Budget for Next Year, Officials Say

WASHINGTON, Oct. 27 — White House budget officials are planning on asking for a $121 billion budget for the Army next year, not the $138 billion that senior Army officials have been seeking, two senior Pentagon officials said.

Army officials were told of the decision in an Oct. 19 memorandum from Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon R. England, which noted that changes in the Army allotment were still possible, as deliberations continued over the Bush administration’s budget for the 2008 fiscal year, said officials who had seen the memorandum.

The Army budget figure was first reported by Bloomberg News. The request will go to Congress in February.

But it appears that the preliminary decision to scale back the annual budget request for the Army could be offset later in the year, in a so-called supplemental appropriation like those Congress has passed every year since 2001. The extra money in those bills has financed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as unanticipated costs elsewhere.

In another memorandum issued this week, Mr. England informed the Army and other military services that the administration’s ground rules covering what costs can be included in so-called supplemental spending bills “are being expanded” to include “costs related to the longer war against terror,” not just continuing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He said that in some cases the supplemental spending could be used to buy newer equipment or to speed other improvements in military capabilities.

Steven Kosiak, a defense budget analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said the Pentagon was “sending a signal to the services” that they now have permission not to limit their request to war-related costs.

Read the rest at the NY Tmes

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