GovernmentExecutive.com

Does Congress Know There Is a War Going On?

I don't know about anyone else, but before I go on Thanksgiving holiday, I take care of unfinished business. Not Congress, even though it had some real serious business to handle before it went on vacation, such as passing a $179 billion 2008 Defense Department war supplemental funding bill.

Yes, I know the congressional Democratic leadership has accused the White House of using "scare tactics" to get the supplemental passed -- even though the bill passed by the House last week, which provides $50 billion in funding, also includes an unrealistic deadline to bring all the troops home from Iraq by next Christmas.

In this case I tend to side with Defense spokesman Geoff Morrell, who told reporters last week that the Pentagon plan to furlough up to 200,000 civilian personnel is not a tactic in a high level game of chicken, but grim fiscal reality. "We are not out to issue propaganda," Morrell said. "We are out to adequately fund our troops who are in battle right now, and we are only dealing with the facts here."

But Congress decided that adequate funding for the troops could wait not just for the four-day weekend we taxpayers take for Thanksgiving, but a grand total of 13 days until Dec. 4. Then, before you know it, it's time for another two week break over the Christmas and New Year's holidays - and I doubt if the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq have such a liberal leave policy.

Looking at all the appropriations bills Congress has failed to pass this year, it seems the business of this Congress is unfinished business.

Does Anyone in the Pentagon Know There Is a War Going On?

Based on phone calls I made to the Pentagon last week - and to military bases around the country - the key mission of the past few days was getting out of town early.

Over and over again I was told whoever I needed to talk to had already left on Thanksgiving vacation and I should call back this week.

My pal Paul McCloskey, editor of Government Health IT, calls this "vacation inflation."

The Defense Health IT Supplemental Bottom Line

The Military Health System wants a small slice - $10.6 million - of the 2008 war supplemental to support systems used to electronically track patients evacuated from Afghanistan and Iraq to stateside hospitals.

MHS said in its budget justification that these funds will be used for additional hardware and software and contract support and if it does get them, "patients may arrive at a destination hospital that is not properly equipped to care for the patient. Vital health surveillance data collected within the theaters of operation would not be stored. ... If funding is not available for the incremental costs associated with information management activities, the electronic collection and storage of all casualty health care records would be greatly reduced."

The 2008 war supplemental also includes $16.7 million in funding for tactical medical system hardware and software, which, among other things, is used for patient tracking from the Army Medical Communications for Combat Care (MC4) for Army Reserve units and another $5.9 million worth of MC4 stuff for Army Guard units. You would think Congress would view this equipment as essential for Guard and Reserve units slated for war deployments.

Scare tactics? Humph

Joint Network Node for Reserves and Guard

The 2008 war supplemental includes a $751.8 million in funds to procure satellite-fed tactical Internet systems under the Joint Network Node program for Guard and Reserve units, a line item buried deep in tiny type in budget materials prepared by the Defense comptroller.

JNN consists of a whole mess of switches and routers connected to a satellite uplink, which provides Army battalion commanders with high-speed Internet connectivity that supports broadband data as well as Voice over Internet Protocol gear to allow small-unit leaders to easily place phone calls anywhere in the world.

The Army has fielded JNN to most of its active forces and the supplemental funding is designed to push it down to the Guard and Reserves - if Congress ever stops going on holiday.

It All Begins With the Radio Operator

As a guy who once carried a radio on his back in the Marine Corps, I know that command and control begins with radios, and the war supplemental includes $2.4 billion in funding to buy 1,760,756 Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System radios for the active forces and $654 million to buy an unstated quantity of SINCGARS radios for the Guard and Reserve.

Vehicle mount SINCGARS radios are also used for convoy control operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and I know Guard units sure can use the additional gear. When the 720th Heavy Truck Transportation Company from my hometown of Las Vegas, N.M., deployed to Iraq, its personnel acquired radios from the local Radio Shack.

The line items for SINCGARS radios also are buried in tiny type in comptroller budget documents but are an essential bit of unfinished business the administration and Congress must address.

This, of course, may call for maturity of leadership and willingness to compromise, and maybe Santa will take care of that before the start of the next extended vacation.