Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation

Iraq and Afghanistan War Funding

by Travis Sharp [contact information]

February 26, 2009

From 2001 through February 2009, the Congressional Research Service estimates that Congress approved $864 billion in war-related funding for DOD, the State Department, and the Department of Veterans Affairs. This total breaks down as $657 billion for Iraq, $173 billion for Afghanistan, $28 billion for enhanced military base security, and $5.5 billion that cannot be allocated properly.

In its February 26 topline request, the Obama administration included $75.5 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan in FY 2009, which ends on September 30, 2009. Without this extra supplemental, war funding will expire in June. The extra $75.5 billion supplemental, when combined with the $68.5 billion in FY 2009 funding already passed by Congress in 2008, would bring total FY 2009 war funding to $144 billion and aggregate war costs to date to approximately $939 billion when including war-related spending by DOD, the State Department, and the Veterans Administration. The Obama administration also requested $130 billion in war funding for FY 2010 in its February 26 outline.

In January 2009, House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee chairman Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) said that the final version of the extra FY 2009 supplemental would provide a $500 per month salary bonus to all 185,000 soldiers who have been held past their deployment commitments since 2001 in the Army’s stop-loss program. Additional procurement funds also are likely to be included by congressional appropriators.

The FY 2007 Defense Authorization bill required that war funding requests be submitted at the beginning of the year alongside base budget requests. This “early submission” stipulation was intended to give Congress as much time to scrutinize war funding requests as it had to study base budget requests. The Bush administration followed the requirement in FY 2008 but ignored it in FY 2009 because it claimed that it wanted to wait for recommendations from General David Petraeus before submitting its war budget.

Emergency supplemental funding is exempt from ceilings that apply to discretionary spending in Congress’s annual budget resolutions. The supplemental process undermines budget planning and erodes congressional oversight by omitting detailed “budget justifications” documentation, making it difficult for Congress and policymakers to determine the basis of requests and consider viable funding alternatives. The Congressional Research Service, Congressional Budget Office, Government Accountability Office, congressional leaders on military issues, budget experts, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen have all criticized supplementals as an improper method for defense budgeting. Top-level Obama administration defense officials such as Comptroller Robert Hale and Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn have signaled their intent to stop using supplementals as soon as possible.