McCain rebukes Pentagon for emergency funding requests

In the strongest public rebuke yet from a Republican lawmaker over the Bush administration's policy of using supplemental appropriations to pay for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Tuesday that continued reliance on emergency spending provided an "end run" around authorizers.

His harsh criticism echoed that of his Democratic colleagues, who have argued that wartime costs are predictable, now more than four years after the onset of the war against terrorists.

"I don't know how you can call it an emergency anymore," McCain told Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.

McCain also argued that supplemental spending was contrary to congressional efforts to improve the appropriations process. Supplemental spending requests are handled solely by the Appropriations committees, and are not held to the same authorization standards as traditional budget submissions.

"To continue to come up here with a, quote, emergency [spending request] is something that's become unacceptable and it's got to stop," said McCain, long a watchdog of wasteful government spending.

Rumsfeld responded by saying he could submit the wartime costs in the regular budget, but had been advised by Congress several years ago not to do so because wartime costs were unpredictable. His remarks diverged from his testimony last year that supplemental appropriations were prepared much closer to the time funds are needed, allowing more accurate cost estimates and quicker access to funds.

Rumsfeld said Tuesday that he understood the supplemental spending bills were a "problem" for authorization committees, and suggested that Congress might be able to alter how it handled them.

McCain's comments came two weeks before the Pentagon will request $70 billion more for Iraq and Afghanistan for the remainder of fiscal 2006, bringing total wartime emergency appropriations to $120 billion this year. Appropriators attached a $50 billion bridge fund to the recently enacted 2006 Defense spending bill, even though it was not requested by the administration.

While McCain's criticisms were the strongest yet from a Republican, there appears to be a growing consensus even among GOP stalwarts that wartime supplementals should end. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va., and Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, both supported a successful Democratic amendment to the fiscal 2005 supplemental appropriations bill that urged the administration to request and appropriate wartime funds in annual spending bills after 2006. Indeed, the 2007 budget request that Pentagon officials unveiled Monday includes for the first time a $50 billion bridge fund for Iraq and Afghanistan operations in response to calls for increased transparency.

Tuesday's Senate hearing was the first on the 2007 defense budget, but much of the session centered on Iraq. Senators did, however, air concerns that the military cannot afford both its pricey conventional weapons programs, which are geared largely toward fighting state enemies, and other technologies aimed at combating more unpredictable adversaries.

Rumsfeld acknowledged that senior military and civilian leaders spent the "better part of a year balancing risks, and there are always risks." But he said the department's current weapons-buying plans are manageable.