Senate panel OKs only part of Pentagon's funds transfer request

The Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Wednesday approved only a portion of the Defense Department's request to transfer funds to pay its bills in the event a war-related supplemental spending bill is not quickly enacted.

The panel agreed to $1.6 billion of a $4 billion request to shift funds from Air Force and Navy operations and maintenance accounts to Army and Special Operations O&M coffers.

The panel allowed the funding transfer to pay for civilian salaries, among other things, only in the event a supplemental is not approved by July 5, a spokesman for Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, said in an e-mail.

The spokesman also disclosed that the subcommittee last week approved in full another reprogramming request for $5.7 billion that transfers money from Air Force and Navy personnel accounts to the Army to pay troop salaries.

Senior Pentagon officials have said the Army would be unable to pay troops, including those deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, by June 15 without either approval of the reprogramming or an enacted supplemental.

The Senate panel's decisions on both reprogramming requests, which were sent to Capitol Hill May 27, mirror the actions of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. Both the House and Senate Armed Services committees approved the full $9.7 billion in transfer requests, but the Defense Department can only shift the lowest level of funding allowed by the four congressional defense panels.

House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman John Murtha, D-Pa., has said the department did not need the full $4 billion transferred so quickly. Inouye's spokesman, meanwhile, questioned whether the Defense Department needed approval at all before July 5. Approval of the operations and maintenance reprogramming was "not urgent because DOD [Department of Defense] doesn't need the money until July 5, and will only need the reprogramming if Congress fails to enact the supplemental before July 5," Inouye's spokesman said. "There was no good reason to approve the reprogramming at this time."

The spokesman added that approving a reprogramming for money the department will likely receive in the supplemental before July reduces congressional oversight and allows the department to transfer funds it feels it does not need. "Their decision was based on a plea last Friday from DOD to give the department approval so it could be assured that funds would be available if the supplemental isn't enacted," he added, referring to Inouye and Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee ranking member Ted Stevens, R-Alaska.

The Senate panel believes the funding approved Wednesday will keep the department fiscally afloat until July 13 in the event a supplemental is not enacted before then. "Sens. Inouye and Stevens have made it clear to military leaders that if somehow we don't get the supplemental done, they will approve additional funding transfers for future civilian pay needs if the supplemental isn't enacted before the July 4 recess," the spokesman said.