Rumsfeld convinces Bush to boost Pentagon budget this year

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, with a big assist from military leaders, has won his first big behind-the-scenes battle by convincing President Bush to seek extra money for the military this fiscal year--instead of waiting until next year as other advisers had recommended, administration officials told National Journal News Service Thursday.

"It went from no defense supplemental this year to none right now," said one administration official who participated in the intense White House discussions on how best to get Bush's agenda through Congress.

Bush's turnaround means he will ask for extra billions for the Pentagon well before the new fiscal year begins on Oct. 1, knowledgeable sources said.

Rumsfeld had said during his Senate confirmation hearing last month that he felt the military needed more money than was provided in former President Clinton's defense budget--but he did not give an amount.

But after Rumsfeld took office last month, a consensus developed in the White House that asking Congress for more defense money during the current fiscal year might complicate passage of Bush's tax cut plan and his education program, sources said.

Office of Management and Budget Director Mitch Daniels even went so far as to tell the appropriations panels that the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps had no need for "emergency" funds this fiscal year, according to congressional sources.

A Defense Department spokesman said the same thing Thursday. But the spokesman left open the possibility that this view might change later, on the basis of a study Rumsfeld has undertaken of military needs.

However, Bush heard a harrowing story about emergency needs from the Joint Chiefs of Staff and theater commanders when he met with them at Fort McNair Tuesday, sources said.

The military leaders said they needed more money to keep planes flying and pilots trained and could not wait until Oct. 1 to get it, according to a participant in the blunt session.

"Aviation is critical," said one official who heard the generals and admirals brief Bush on their most urgent problems.

Prior to the Fort McNair face-to-face meeting with the military leaders and this week's public outcry among conservatives demanding more money for defense, Rumsfeld already had been working behind the scenes to persuade Bush to submit a supplemental appropriations request during the current fiscal year.

But the military's testimony became an important counterweight as Bush assessed whether to make good immediately on his campaign promises to increase defense spending or to heed his advisers who warned against cluttering up his tax and education agenda.

While Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, and other appropriators were willing to wait for the results of a Rumsfeld study rather than rush supplemental funds to the armed services, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va., and other authorizers called on Bush to submit a supplemental defense request to Congress sooner rather than later.

"Experience has shown us that an emergency supplemental for Defense is, unfortunately, the only way to address some of the critical readiness and quality of life programs," Warner and other senators wrote Bush earlier this week.

And House Armed Services ranking member Ike Skelton, D-Mo., had said he was "very disappointed" to hear that Bush did not intend to ask for supplemental defense funds this fiscal year.

In a move that dismayed Rumsfeld, Army, Navy and Air Force officials traveled to Capitol Hill Jan. 10--before the new Defense secretary had taken office--to tell the Senate Armed Services Committee in detail of their needs for emergency money for the current fiscal year. The specific list of items totaled $7.9 billion, with another $2 billion needed for unbudgeted increases in personnel costs--mainly in health care.

Bush has said repeatedly--and the Pentagon spokesman reaffirmed Thursday--that quality of life accounts would top the new administration's priority list for extra defense funding. A pay raise for military personnel of between 6 percent and 7.3 percent--compared to the 3.7 percent voted by Congress last year--is among the personnel increases under discussion, officials said.

Rep. William (Mac) Thornberry, R-Texas, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, suggested Thursday that a "limited supplemental on personnel issues" would win popular support in Congress, but would also "become very hard to control."

Thornberry said such a spending bill might become a "Christmas tree" that would attract additional spending requests--and draw attention away from Bush's chief policy initiatives in his first 100 days as President.