Tsunami relief discussions may delay supplemental request

The White House might delay submission of its fiscal 2005 supplemental budget request to fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan until mid-to-late March, congressional aides said Wednesday.

That move that would allow Congress to focus more immediately on a separate disaster relief package for tsunami victims in South Asia and East Africa, which President Bush has said should be lawmakers' top priority.

The timeline, while not final, would be at least a month later than originally expected, which was to be shortly after Bush's budget submission Feb. 7.

The delay also would allow the Office of Management and Budget and the Pentagon to more accurately assess military needs, aides said, and to determine whether additional funds will be included in the request for relief and reconstruction costs related to tsunami damage.

An OMB spokesman did not comment on timing or details of the expected military and disaster aid requests. But he said the $25 billion lawmakers provided for military operations as part of the $417.5 billion fiscal 2005 Defense spending bill should be sufficient until the supplemental is approved. Congressional aides said the extra funding could end up in the range of $80 billion to $100 billion.

"The Pentagon will have enough to make sure there is no disruption in support," the spokesman said. He noted that OMB Director Bolten has said the administration would not ask for additional military funding until "as close as possible to the time we need to request it."

But congressional aides on both sides of the aisle were skeptical that the troops' needs could be accommodated if the supplemental request were delayed into March.

The Pentagon estimates the current monthly spending rate for the uniformed services in Iraq and Afghanistan at about $5.5 billion, not including classified intelligence activities.

"If we don't get a [supplemental] up here in early February and get it to the president's desk by the end of February or early March, I think the Army, the Marine Corps and some parts of the intelligence community are going to be sucking wind," a Republican congressional aide said.

Because of the Easter recess, from March 21 through April 4, lawmakers might not complete work on the massive bill until at least late April, based on the time it took to complete the previous two military supplementals.

Meanwhile, the administration is expected to request a first round of tsunami aid of at least $350 million soon after Inauguration Day, Jan. 20. The total might be adjusted after Secretary of State Powell, Florida GOP Gov. Jeb Bush and Senate Majority Leader Frist return from surveying the damage.

The Pentagon has about $115 million that can be tapped for the tsunami aid effort, on top of $384.9 million appropriated in FY05 for the U.S. Agency for International Development. Those funds will have to be replenished.

While the White House has been stung by international criticism that it was not moving swiftly or generously enough, Frist said on the Senate floor Tuesday that Congress "will act quickly on a clean tsunami supplemental" soon after the request arrives.

But House and Senate GOP leaders have not reached final agreement on moving the Defense and tsunami measures separately. House Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., told reporters Wednesday that he thought the two measures could be combined.

Meanwhile, Senate Agriculture ranking member Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said Wednesday he wants a large food aid program to be part of the tsunami supplemental, and if the administration's request for food aid is inadequate, he will urge senators to add more.

"If there's one thing we've got, it's food," Harkin told reporters. "If there's one thing they need, it's food. Why shouldn't we be generous with food?"

Thirty-two senators, led by Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., also wrote Agriculture Secretary Veneman last week, noting the shortages that existed before the tsunami and urging her to allocate more commodities for food aid and to report to them on food needs.

Meanwhile, the Coalition for Food Aid, which represents nongovernmental organizations that distribute food aid, announced that it will urge Congress to provide food aid for the tsunami victims and also provide money for developmental food aid programs that have been cut to provide food in crisis situations in Sudan, Ethiopia and Afghanistan, as well as for the tsunami victims.

-- Jerry Hagstrom contributed to this report.