Pentagons FY17 supplemental sets up budget caps fight

[nitpicker]

http://www.defensenews.com/articles/pentagons-fy17-supplemental-sets-up-budget-caps-fight

Pentagon’s FY17 supplemental sets up budget caps fight

By: Aaron Mehta, March 16, 2017

WASHINGTON — By presenting the majority of its fiscal year 2017 defense supplemental funding request as base budget dollars rather than special war funding, the Trump administration has set itself on a collision course with Congress, top Pentagon budget officials confirmed Thursday. John Roth, the acting comptroller for the Pentagon, Army Lt. Gen. Anthony Ierardi, director of Force Structure, Resources and Assessment (J8) on the Joint Staff, confirmed that the $30.9 billion supplemental request will require Congress to pass language changing caps put in place by the Budget Control Act — something analysts were quick to point out is unlikely to happen.

Of the supplemental request, $25 billion is in base budget funding, which will largely go towards equipment — including adding five F-35 joint strike fighters, buying 24 new F/A-18E/F planes for the Navy, and giving the Army 20 new AH-64 Apache helicopters. There is also a wide-ranging investment in munitions, something the Pentagon has expressed concern about over the last two years. Another $5.1 billion is earmarked for four specific areas: $2 billion for the broad fight against ISIS, $1.1 billion for Operation Freedom’s Sentinel in Afghanistan, $1.4 billion for Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq and Syria and $600 million for the Counter-ISSI Train and Equip mission.

All told, the supplemental, if enacted as is, would bring the defense base funding to $549.6 billion and the OCO funding to $69.7 billion, for a total of $619.2 billion in fiscal 2017 requests. Roth acknowledged that the request would require changes to the defense caps, saying “ultimately what will happen is the administration will have to work with congressional leadership” to figure out a way forward.

One potential solution would involve sliding more of the money into OCO, which is why it was surprising to many analysts to see the Pentagon put an emphasis on base budget spending with the supplemental. But Roth defended that move — a move previously backed by Office of Management and Budget head Mick Mulvaney — as the right way to do business.
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