Obama requests $83.4 bn for Iraq, Afghanistan, foreign aid

President Barack Obama is seeking an additional $83.4 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and other initiatives, a request that would bring the total cost of the conflicts to more than $900 billion.

The administration submitted a request to Congress on Thursday for $75.8 billion more in war funding for the remainder of the 2009 fiscal year. The request includes $11.6 billion to replace military equipment, including $600 million to buy the last four Lockheed Martin Corp F-22 fighters the Pentagon wants and $400 million for 12 Boeing Co AH-64 Apache helicopters.

The so-called supplemental spending proposal also seeks $3.6 billion to beef up the Afghanistan Security Force, part of the revised strategy to fight Islamic militants Obama announced last month. Other spending requests include $1 billion in aid to Pakistan, $30 million to begin shutting down the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and $350 million to fight narcotics trafficking along the US-Mexico border.

 

“This request reflects the reality of our day and age: We need to use all the elements of our power — economic and diplomatic as well as military — to confront threats to our security,” Obama said in a letter accompanying the proposal. “In the past, the Congress has moved expeditiously to approve funding for our armed forces. I urge the Congress to do so once more.”

‘Focused’ bill sought

He warned lawmakers against loading up a war-funding bill with unrelated spending requests. “I also urge the Congress to focus on the needs of our troops and our national security and not to use the supplement to pursue unnecessary spending,” Obama said. “I want the Congress to send me a focused bill and to do so quickly. When this request returns to me as legislation ready to be signed, it should remain focused on our security.”

Lawmakers have already approved $65.9 billion in emergency wartime spending for the current fiscal year, which ends September 30.

Since the start of the two wars, lawmakers have appropriated a total of $830 billion for them — $657 billion in Iraq and $173 billion in Afghanistan, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.

The administration’s request comes on top of separate plans to spend $130 billion on the two wars next year.

The request for the rest of the 2009 fiscal year would fund an array of military initiatives, including $1.5 billion to continue efforts to counter roadside bombs, $1.2 billion to accelerate “Wounded Warrior” programs for injured and disabled troops and $3.8 million for classified military intelligence gathering. Another $2.2 billion would speed up the growth of the Army to 547,000 personnel and Marine Corps to 202,000 members.

The administration is also requesting $5.5 million to deploy about 73 mail-screening devices to diplomatic outposts abroad. “This is an unanticipated need based on security threats directed at many individual embassies and consulates worldwide,” the request said.

It also asks for $800 million in aid to Gaza and the West Bank, $89 million for efforts to secure nuclear materials in Russia, $200 million in disaster aid for Sudan and elsewhere in Africa, $242 million in aid to Georgia that was pledged in the wake of that country’s 2008 conflict with Russia and $13 million in humanitarian assistance to Burma.

Obama and other administration officials have criticized former President George W. Bush for funding the Iraq and Afghanistan wars through supplemental spending requests that are not part of Congress’s annual budget process. Lawmakers objected to the reliance on supplemental process because Congress’s annual spending limits did not apply to the funding proposals and the requests usually had to be approved quickly.

‘Last’ Supplemental

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said yesterday Obama was forced to make his own supplemental request because the Bush administration had provided only enough money to fund the wars through part of the current fiscal year. Gibbs said this would be the “last” use of a supplemental request to pay for the wars. “The process by which this has been funded over the past,” he said, “will change.”

Defense Secretary Robert Gates yesterday urged Congress to act on the supplemental request “as quickly as possible.”

“The reality is the alternative to the supplemental is a sudden and precipitous withdrawal” by the U.S. from Iraq and Afghanistan, Gates told reporters in Washington. “And I don’t know anybody who thinks that’s a good idea.”

To contact the reporterS on this story: Brian Faler in Washington at bfaler@bloomberg.net