Differences Between Obama and Appropriations War Supplementals

The House is expected to vote this week on the second FY2009 war supplemental. There are a number of differences between the Obama administration’s request and the bill that was voted out of the Appropriations Committee. President Obama requested a total of $75.5 billion for the Department of Defense and $7.1 billion for international affairs while the House Appropriations Committee gave $84.5 billion to the Pentagon and $10 billion for international affairs. Below is a short analysis of the major differences between the president’s request and the Appropriations Committee’s bill.

The committee added significant funding to nearly all DOD personnel accounts, increasing Army funding by $730 million (7.2%) and the Air Force by $393 million (28.2%). However, in order to do so, the Appropriations Committee cut nearly all Operations and Maintenance (O&M) accounts. O&M defense-wide fell by $313 million (5.5%) while each of the services had smaller decreases.

Procurement was mixed, with some programs, such as the Air Force aircraft procurement account, increasing, while Marine Corps and Air Force missile funding decreased. Much of the aircraft procurement increase can be attributed to the Committee’s addition of funds for new transport planes, such as the C-17 and C-130.

Research, Development, Testing and Evaluation (RDT&E) was uniformly decreased by the Appropriations Committee, while MRAP procurement was increased by $2.2 billion. The committee increased food aid and peacekeeping operations funding by approximately 66%. Military Construction funding was increased, with large amounts going to build new hospitals and refurbish old ones. The largest percentage increase is to the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) account, which the committee added unrequested funds for security assistance to Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and Mexico

The Obama administration requested $400 million for the Pakistan Counterinsurgency Capability Fund (PCCF). With the concurrence of the Secretary of State, these funds would go to Pentagon efforts to train and equip Pakistan military and security forces as well as funding stabilization and reconstruction activities in Pakistan. However, as Budget Insight noted last week, modifications made by the committee led to changes in the management of the fund.  According to the House bill, $400 million will be made available to DOD for the PCCF through FY 2010.  In addition, another $400 million will be made available to the State Department beginning in FY 2010 and expiring at the end of the fiscal year.  The committee intends that as the State Department builds its capacity to manage and implement the PCCF, funds for the program will go solely to the State Department.

SELECTED MAJOR SUPPLEMENTAL FUNDING CHANGES

All Figures in Millions of $	Obama Request	Appropriations Committee	Difference	% Change
Personnel, Army	10,195	10,925	730	7.2%
Personnel, Air Force	1,391	1,783	392	28.2%
O&M, Defense-Wide	5,667	5,354	-313	-5.5%
O&M, Air National Guard	203	178	-25	-12.3%
Air Force, Aircraft Procurement	2,379	5,138	2,759	116.0%
National Guard &Reserve Procurement	0	500	500	Infinite
RDT&E, Navy	145	96	-49	-33.8%
RDT&E, Air Force	108	93	-15	-13.9%
P.L 480 Food Aid	300	500	200	66.7%
Peacekeeping Operations	50	80	30	60.0%
Foreign Military Financing	98	1,349	1,251	1276.5%
PCCF	400	400	0	0.0%