Senator insists budget absorb increases in troop strength
The Bush administration should have asked for funds for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in its $401.7 billion fiscal 2004 budget request, lawmaker contends.
The Senate Armed Services Committee began marking up its fiscal 2005 defense authorization bill on Tuesday and Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., said he will urge that the cost of increasing the Army's active-duty troop levels and funding additional equipment for operations in Iraq be paid for through the regular budget process.
Reed chided the Bush administration for failing to seek funds for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in its $401.7 billion fiscal 2004 budget request to Congress. Although the administration is expected to seek additional money in an anticipated $50 billion wartime supplemental appropriation next January, Reed said there is room within the Pentagon's current budget proposal to allocate more resources for operational needs from other programs, which could include a $10.2 billion request for missile defense and a proposal to research new nuclear weapons.
Earlier this year, Reed and Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., introduced a bill to increase the active-duty end-strength of the Army by 30,000, a move that could cost the Pentagon roughly $3.6 billion over three years. Last year, Reed and Hagel introduced an amendment to the fiscal 2004 defense authorization bill to increase the size of the Army by 10,000 troops. It passed the Senate, but died in conference. In a telephone news conference Tuesday, Reed said the world has changed a great deal since then, and that the administration is starting to recognize the need for more troops.
Funding for more troops and equipment, including armored Humvees and other vehicles in short supply in Iraq, should come from resources outside the Army's regular budget, as the service is "probably the most strapped" given their prolonged deployments there, Reed said, noting that the Army will need money to recapitalize its heavily-used equipment.
Reed said a consensus is building in the Senate that more troops and equipment are needed, although he said many Senate lawmakers continue to defer to the Defense Department and President Bush on the issue of approving more supplemental funds.
"It's still unclear whether we could get on the Senate side sufficient votes to put the end-strength increase in the budget and also to sort of force a supplemental," he said, noting that lawmakers are battling tradition in trying to legislate a supplemental appropriation prior to the administration's anticipated request next January.
Last month, House Armed Services Chairman Hunter said his committee would seek to authorize supplemental appropriations of at least $20 billion in the fiscal 2005 defense authorization bill in an effort to increase Army and Marine Corps troop levels by 39,000 and fund other operational needs in Iraq and Afghanistan.