Senate Republicans seek to avert 2007 Defense cuts
Six senators write President Bush, arguing that a $7.5 billion cut in spending slated for next year would jeopardize weapons systems advances.
Senate Armed Services Chairman John Warner, R-Va., and five other Republicans have written President Bush to oppose billions of dollars in spending cuts the Defense Department is planning for the next five years.
They wrote the president on Dec. 16 in anticipation of final fiscal 2007 budget decisions by senior Pentagon officials, who are on the verge of approving cuts affecting everything from weapons programs to troop levels across all the military services.
Earlier this fall, Acting Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England ordered the services to slash $32.1 billion from their accounts over the next five years as part of a government-wide attempt to control spending and trim the federal deficit. In fiscal 2007 alone, that might mean a $7.5 billion cut to projected defense spending.
In particular, the senators expressed concern that reducing the defense budget request might "disproportionately cut weapons system development and procurement" and break the five-year trend of "modest, but sustained real growth needed to make up for the 'procurement holiday' in the 1990s."
Spending on weapons systems has risen fairly steadily since the mid-1990s, though it spiked significantly after President Bush took office in 2001.
"Failure to continue this growth would impair our ability to replace the existing inventory as required by wartime stress and would jeopardize procurement of new systems, which the [Defense] Department has declared for years are necessary to protect America against current and future challenges," the senators wrote.
A year ago, the Pentagon stunned the services and their allies in Congress when it released a now-infamous budget document demanding $30 billion in cuts over six years to meet White House budget targets. This year's decisions are expected to be more severe.
Last year, the Pentagon projected it would need $443.1 billion for fiscal 2007, not including supplemental spending request to pay for ongoing operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. That figure includes $158.3 billion for procurement and research and development programs, the senators said in their letter.
"The amount presented to Congress last year for fiscal year 2007 was the minimum which the department believed it needed for future requirements," they wrote to the president. "We do not believe it would be responsible to reduce that figure at the 11th hour, especially for budgetary reasons obviously unrelated to any analysis of military necessity."
Senate Armed Services Seapower Subcommittee Chairman Jim Talent, R-Mo., and fellow committee Republican Sens. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina and Susan Collins of Maine, all signed the letter, as did Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine.