The department said in a release Feb. 4 when the budget was released that it would request more, probably at least another $100 billion, if current war costs are a guide “once the specific needs of our troops are better known.”

At a Jan. 29 press conference Geoff Morrell, Pentagon spokesman, said that request should fund operations through the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2009. He added that at least half of the 2009 budget “will be executed by a subsequent administration and secretary of defense.”

In addition, Gen. David Petraeus, senior commander in Iraq, and Ambassador Ryan Crocker are to report to the administration and Congress on the situation in that country in April.

Decisions on troop levels for the future would be made after that report and others from the Joint Chiefs of Staff and U.S. Central Command.
The administration asked for $189.3 billion to fund those operations in FY 2008.

To date, Congress has approved $70 billion of that request for operations and another $16.8 billion for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles.

Defense officials said war costs are running about $10 billion a month.

Even as more defense spending is moving from emergency supplementals to the base budget, pressure to hold down future increases is growing on Capitol Hill during this presidential election year.

In the days leading up to the release of the budget, Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said, “I believe that we need to have a broad public discussion about defense” and that he and Secretary Robert Gates believe that defense spending should not fall below 4 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).

Gates, speaking Feb. 4, said defense spending in wartime are at historic lows, saying that the figures for the Korean War were 14 percent of GDP and 9 percent during Vietnam.

“Delay degrades the force.”

Tina Jonas, Defense Department comptroller, said the Army military personnel account will run out in June. Vice Adm. Steve, Stanley, a senior defense financial officer, said operating accounts will run out the next month.

Lt. Gen. David Melcher, Army military deputy for the budget, said, “Supplementals have been a factor for a number of years.”

He said most of the military personnel account that the Army intends to spend, as well as operations and maintenance, are now being carried in the supplemental requests.

Army budget officials estimate that 40 percent of the incentives for recruiting and retention are also in the supplemental requests for FY 2008.
“Eighteen billion of the money for reset is in the supplemental” for 2008, he said.

Melcher said that procurement is also now increasingly in the emergency spending request. Before he took his positions in Army budgeting, “I was told: ‘You’ll never see a dollar in procurement in a supplemental.’” He said that the FY 2008 supplemental contains $40 billion for Army procurement.

“We would prefer to know what the Congress intends to do with the 102 [billion dollars] still on the table,” Jonas added.

Army budget officials said about $56.5 billion of that money is for Army operations.

“What happens when you have a budget and supplementals about the same size?” Melcher asked rhetorically.

He said he was worried about what would happen in the spring if Congress did not pass the remaining supplemental request by Memorial Day. “You begin to see aberrant behavior” with warning letters for layoffs, contracts being terminated, child care centers closed and youth and community programs shut down, etc. “That’s not a good model to follow.”

Adding, “I don’t think there is the certainty [of amount, timing and ability to execute a program] in the supplemental” versus including the same amount of money for programs in the base budget.