Rumsfeld defends supplemental, proposed program cuts

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Richard Myers defended the Bush administration's $419 billion fiscal 2006 budget request before the House Armed Services Committee, fielding questions on Iraq, proposed budget cuts and the administration's new $82 billion supplemental spending package for fiscal 2005.

Armed Services member Joel Hefley, R-Colo., told Rumsfeld he is concerned with the administration's practice of "putting repeated expenses" related to operations in Afghanistan and Iraq in annual supplemental appropriations.

"There are certain aspects of the war effort that we pretty much know," Hefley said. "We spend $4.1 billion a month on [operations and maintenance] in Iraq and we can predict that almost every month."

Hefley said what disturbed him is that committee members assert they will "scrub the supplemental" only to decide that if the troops need something, it should be provided.

"I wonder if that's the purpose of doing the supplemental," he asked.

Rumsfeld said the decision to rely on supplemental spending is made jointly between the Defense Department, OMB and Congress.

"I am no expert on this subject," he said, although he defended the Army's plan to fund some transformation efforts through the supplemental, including $5 billion for equipment in support of the Army's "modularity" initiative. "When you come back to reset the force ... you reset the force the way it ought to be," he said, adding that the department does not want to replenish its inventory with antiquated weaponry. "The question is, is that a replenishment and a reset that goes in a supplemental, or is it something else? Is it an improvement? Well, it's both," Rumsfeld said.

Hefley said Congress has some responsibility to give guidance in what members would or would not accept in a supplemental. House Armed Services Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., agreed, noting that "Army modularity is one of the areas we need to look at because that is to some degree a predictable thing."

Other lawmakers took issue with proposed cuts in several big-ticket weapons programs, including the C-130J transport plane, F/A-22 fighter and the Navy's plan to reduce its aircraft carrier fleet. Rep. Robin Hayes, R-N.C., emphasized the need for the C-130J, noting the Air Force's recent decision to ground a number of older models because of structural faults. Hayes stressed that older C-130 planes are between 31-43 years old, and that any "hand-wringing bed wetters" seeking to delay or terminate the current C-130J program need to understand that.

Rumsfeld said the administration "may come back with an amendment to the budget with respect to the C-130s." Rep. Jo Ann Davis, R-Va., also expressed concern with the proposed budget cuts that could affect the F/A-22 and the nation's carrier fleet. Rumsfeld remarked that "resources are finite" despite the fact that the Pentagon's budget increased 4.8 percent over last year. And he noted the fighter is an "enormously expensive aircraft" at $257 million apiece.