White House Is Trimming Army Budget for Next Year, Officials Say

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WASHINGTON, Oct. 27 — White House budget officials are planning on asking for a $121 billion budget for the Army next year, not the $138 billion that senior Army officials have been seeking, two senior Pentagon officials said.

Army officials were told of the decision in an Oct. 19 memorandum from Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon R. England, which noted that changes in the Army allotment were still possible, as deliberations continued over the Bush administration’s budget for the 2008 fiscal year, said officials who had seen the memorandum.

The Army budget figure was first reported by Bloomberg News. The request will go to Congress in February.

But it appears that the preliminary decision to scale back the annual budget request for the Army could be offset later in the year, in a so-called supplemental appropriation like those Congress has passed every year since 2001. The extra money in those bills has financed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as unanticipated costs elsewhere.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/28/washington/28army.html?_r=1&oref=slogin