Department of Alabama

Friday, October 27, 2006 at 07:33 AM

by alabama

WASHINGTON - The Army, which has borne much of the costs for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, would get $121 billion for the 2008 budget year under a preliminary spending plan that is nearly $18 billion short of the amount Army officials say they need.

According to a senior defense official, guidelines sketched out in a memo by Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England would add about $7 billion to the planned Army budget of $114 billion for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, 2007. The Army requested a $25 billion increase.

The official requested anonymity because the budget request has not been released.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld would not confirm the numbers Thursday and said any budget discussions are not final. He suggested that some money for the Army could come from supplemental budget requests.

"It is very difficult to know what ought to go in the budget and what ought to go in the supplemental," Rumsfeld said.

Gen. Peter Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff, had pressed for $138 billion for 2008. He has told administration officials and Congress the Army needs the money to replace and repair equipment used in Iraq and to pay for other costs of the war, while still covering the day-to-day expenses to run the Army.

He said in July it will cost the Army up to $13 billion per year over the course of the war and several years beyond to repair or replace worn equipment, and that the Army is using up equipment at four times the rate for which it was designed.

The budget outlined in England's memo suggests the Army will have to settle for billions of dollars less than what Schoomaker spelled out. It was unclear how the Army would make up for the shortfall.

Earlier this year, Army officials struggling to find money to pay war costs cut back for travel, civilian hiring and other expenses not essential to the war mission.

Rumsfeld said Thursday there have been discussions with the White House Office of Management and Budget about the spending needs and "those numbers are still moving around quite a bit."

"We've been working very hard to try to get reset money for the Army," Rumsfeld said. "The Army needs it. So does the Marine Corps. So do some of the other services."

He added, "I think we have some reasonable understandings with OMB about the coming year and the supplementals and the importance of not having a two- or three-year lag in getting the reset taken place."

Extracted from Military.com

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