Washington, D.C. (October 26, 2007) – Since President Bush released his latest addition to the burgeoning FY2008 war supplemental on Monday, the resulting debate in Congress has revolved around how to leverage it politically. We hope this does not mean that members or their staff will put off scrutinizing what the supplemental actually contains until they sit down to legislate it weeks or months from now. Many areas of the supplemental warrant closer scrutiny, such as the hidden components of the massive “additional activities” account or the 40 percent increase in procurement (and that’s not counting the MRAPs).

The new $42.3 request, together with the $141.7 billion requested with the Fiscal Year 2008 budget in February and the $5.3 billion added for MRAPs in July, pumps DoD’s portion of the supplemental up to $193 billion. The State and Agriculture departments get another $3.6 billion, bringing the supplemental’s total price tag to $196.4 billion.

Herewith, a summary of the new request’s notable additions.

Operations and Maintenance: Adds $11.6 billion, a nearly 15 percent increase over February’s $79 billion request.

• The largest allocation–$7.4 billion—goes to “additional activities,” a catchall account for operational expenses ranging from body armor to maintenance contracting to recreation.
• New line items such as “theater-level assets,” “land forces operations support” and various brigade additions receive $31.5 million.
• $490 million goes to “security programs,” comprised of various intelligence and communication activities.
• The Iraqi Security Services receive an extra $1 billion (no extra money for Afghanistan Security Services).
• The Navy gets big plus-ups for ship depot maintenance ($189 million) and aircraft depot maintenance ($138 million).
• $274 million goes to classified programs.
• The Iraq Freedom Fund—an emergency DoD slush fund—gets another $100 million.

Procurement: Though the $11 billion for MRAPs garnered all the headlines, procurement gets marked up across the board, with the Army taking the lion’s share. The amended request adds $27 billion to the original request of $40 billion, for a total of $71.5 billion (including the $4.5 July addition).

• Army:  New request adds $23 billion, bringing the supplemental total to $45.5 billion. Increases include $10.3 billion for MRAPs; $1.6 billion for 383 Stryker vehicles; $218 million for 65 Bradley fighting vehicles; $207 million for Aircraft survivability Infrared Countermeasures; $121 million for 935 Javelin missiles; $878 million for 72,000 SINGCARS radio systems; and $1.1 billion for “Rapid Equipping Soldier Support Equipment.”
• Navy/Marine Corps:  The request adds $2.6 billion for a total of $12.2 billion. Increases include $375 million for five new EA-18G “Growler” aircraft (in addition to the 12 requested in February); three MH 60 helicopters for $102 million; and $725 million for “special purpose supply systems.”
• Air Force: New request adds $1.8 billion for a total of $8.6 billion. Increases include $191 million for 24 Predator and $149 million for eight Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles and $167 million for classified programs.
• Miscellaneous:  Request adds $269 million for the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO).  The February request contained $4 billion. Also adds $150 million for the “Joint Rapid Acquisition Cell,” a 2005 Pentagon initiative to speed up wartime contracting and delivery.

Military construction:  Adds $1.5 billion, nearly double the original request, for a total of $2.4 billion.

• “Soldier family support centers” at Fort Carson in Colorado, Fort Stewart in Georgia, Fort Campbell in Kentucky and Fort Polk in Louisiana get $26.3 million.
• $50 million goes toward a “transitioning warrior support complex” at Fort Riley, Kansas and Fort Drum, New York.
• California gets $118 million for Navy bases in California at Camp Pendleton ($112 million) and Twentynine Palms ($5.5 million).
• Texas gets $30 million for WIT (Warriors In Transition) Unit Facilities at Fort Hood and a Burn Rehabilitation Center at Fort Sam Houston.
• Infrastructure spending in Afghanistan receives $322 million, nearly four times the original request. Projects include improvements at Bagram Air Force Base and a “consolidated compound” in Kabul.
• Navy installations in Djibouti receive $76 million.
• Iraq infrastructure jumps from $616 million to $976 million for various projects including a $10 million brick factory at Camp Cropper. 
• Bases in Qatar, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan and Oman receive $113.2 in new funding.
• $416 million goes to toward accelerating the closing of Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Bethesda and the opening of another military medical center in Maryland.

Military Personnel: Adds $769 million to the original $70 billion request. The new request actually cuts $186 million in pay increases, housing allowances and other compensation for active duty troops, probably because both the House and Senate defense appropriations bills currently in conference contain pay increases above the White House request. Army National Guard funding more than doubles from $476 million to $1.3 billion. The rest of the services receive relatively small increases.

Research, Development, Test and Evaluation: Request adds $984 million, bringing the supplemental total to $3.8 billion. Most of the new spending goes toward intelligence programs, such as defense-wide “Foreign material acquisition and exploitation,” as well as $432 million for classified programs.

State Department: According to White House budget materials, the department will receive $401 million for diplomatic and consular activities in Iraq; $160 million for embassy security, construction and maintenance; $723.6 for international peacekeeping assistance; $195 for migration and refugee assistance; $575 for narcotics control and enforcement; $1.1 billion for economic support to Afghanistan; $5 million for demining and anti-terrorism activities; and $80 million for international famine and disaster assistance.

Department of Agriculture: $350 million for the Foreign Agricultural service to distribute emergency food aid.

For more information, please contact us.