Rumsfeld upset at Pentagon's $10B supplemental spending plan

Two weeks before their first meeting with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to discuss their most pressing needs, the Joint Chiefs of Staff sent their emissaries to Capitol Hill Tuesday to lobby the Senate Armed Services Committee for an extra $10 billion for fiscal 2001, National Journal News Service has learned.

Rumsfeld apparently was not pleased. Evidently sensing an end run at Congress, Rumsfeld, a veteran Washington operative on his second tour as the Pentagon's chief executive, issued a cease-and-desist order to the armed services Tuesday, according to sources. This forced the Navy and Army to cancel additional briefings they had scheduled this week to lay out their money problems to congressional committee staffs.

But the horse is already out of the barn, in the form of detailed briefing papers the armed services presented to the Senate Armed Services Committee Jan. 10.

The papers, obtained by National Journal News Service, cite a shortfall for FY2001 consisting of $2.9 billion in the Army, $2.3 billion in the Navy, $1.8 billion in the Air Force and $899 million in the Marine Corps. In addition to that $7.9 billion total, the services have warned Congress they are $2 billion short on pay raises and military health care, for a grand total of about $10 billion.

In addition, the military is likely to seek even more before Rumsfeld comes to Congress with his supplemental budget request for FY2001 and his revised budget for FY2002.

The briefing papers contain live ammunition for those who choose to challenge any cuts Rumsfeld and President Bush make in the chiefs' request. Money shortages, according to the services, include these:

• Army: Spare parts, $400 million; anti-terrorism activities, including hiring more guards and making bases less vulnerable to stealth attacks, $115.7 million; housing for military families and related increases in utility costs, $101.3 million.
• Navy: Readiness accounts, $1.9 billion; shipbuilding, $222 million; personnel, $159 million.
• Air Force: Rising costs of operations, mostly from intensive flying, $628 million; upgrading aircraft and repairing storm damage, $499 million; personnel, including housing allowances and recruiting and retention campaigns, $456 million.
• Marine Corps: Readiness shortfall, $809 million; personnel, $90 million.