For several weeks President George W. Bush, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and other administration and Pentagon officials have been making dire predictions about the impact on U.S. forces in Iraq if Congress fails to enact immediately emergency spending legislation to fund U.S. military operations. Secretary Gates warned Congress that if funding legislation were not passed by April 15, the military would have to reduce training for units preparing to deploy or halt necessary equipment repairs.
In response to alarming signs that the number of recruits for certain branches of the service are well below the necessary levels, the Defense Department has undertaken a broad series of initiatives to boost enlistment. The Center has compiled a list of these initiatives.
On March 15 the House of Representatives completed its work on the President's emergency supplemental spending request for Fiscal Year 2005. The request is for roughly $82 billion, of which $75 billion would support the Pentagon and cover the costs of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Here is the Center's analysis of the slightly altered version considered by the House. The Senate is expected to take up its version of the legislation in April.
The Administration’s $81 billion request for supplemental funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is poor budgetary practice that obscures the Pentagon’s true fiscal picture and erodes Congress’s oversight capabilities.
The Pentagon's "Program Budget Directive No. 753" contains proposed reductions in a number of high profile weapons programs, including the Air Force's F/A-22 "Raptor" fighter aircraft, the Marine Corps' V-22 "Osprey" tilt-rotor aircraft, the Navy's SSN-774 "Virginia" class attack submarine, and the National Missile Defense program.
The $10 billion reduction in next year’s expected Defense Department budget request isn’t a spending cut, it simply means the annual defense budget is growing more slowly than expected. Pentagon spending is at near-record heights, and continues to climb.
In recent days the Pentagon has been on the defensive over the lack of adequate armor for military vehicles operating in Iraq, and other equipment critical for protecting U.S. military forces in the field. There is now a widespread image of American service personnel picking through scrap heaps searching for steel plate and bulletproof glass to upgrade their vehicles with what the troops refer to as “hillbilly armor.”
The Pentagon is becoming increasingly reliant on civilian contractors to perform a growing range of services necessary for the conducting of military operations, from logistical support to armed security. The federal government and Congress will, in the future, have to carefully examine to what extent and how to oversee the activities of these “temp” workers. In the interim, however, there are opportunities already available to improve federal control of contractor activities. One such opportunity is a Senate provision included in the Fiscal Year 2005 Defense Authorization Act that would expand the federal government’s authority to prosecute contract employees for criminal activities committed while they are deployed in support of U.S. military operations.
By Christopher Hellman MinutemanMedia.org Is the Army's February decision to terminate the Comanche helicopter program a signal that cancellation of more weapons systems will follow? This article, written for MinutemanMedia.org by Christopher Hellman, first appeared in the "Topeka Capital Journal"...
By Sanford Gottlieb and Christopher Hellman (This article first appeared in "USA Today," March 22, 2004.) Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, discussing how to find terrorists, asked rhetorically: "Is it likely that an aircraft carrier or...
[ complete archive ]