Footing the bill: At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing yesterday, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) gave Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld an earful of criticism over the Bush administration’s policy of using supplemental appropriations to pay for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. McCain said that reliance on emergency spending provided an “end run” around Congress.
Democrats were howling too, arguing that wartime costs should be predictable more than four years after the onset of the Iraq war.
“I don’t know how you can call it an emergency anymore,” McCain told Rumsfeld.
Supplemental spending requests are not held to the same authorization standards as traditional budget submissions.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.
In response, Rummie seemingly contradicted himself:
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.
In two weeks the Pentagon will request $70 billion more for Iraq and Afghanistan for the remainder of fiscal 2006, bringing the year’s total wartime emergency appropriations to $120 billion. Appropriators attached a $50 billion bridge fund to the 2006 Defense spending bill, even though it was not requested by the administration.
