Army chief of staff Peter Schoomaker withholding a “required 2008 budget plan

Army chief of staff Peter Schoomaker withholding a “required 2008 budget plan

ThinkFast: September 25, 2006 In an “unprecedented” move, Army chief of staff Peter Schoomaker signaled his dismay over the Army’s lack of funding by withholding a “required 2008 budget plan from Pentagon leaders last month.” Without significant troop withdrawals from Iraq, the Army does not believe it can maintain its current level of activity “without billions in additional funding.” www.ThinkProgress.com
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"Year after year there were attempts to raise the ceiling, but year after year OMB has refused," said a former Pentagon official familiar with the debate. "The difference this year is the Army has said that if a raise in the ceiling isn't going to be considered, they won't even play the game."

Added the senior Army official: "If you're Rob Portman advising the president of the United States and duking it out with the , it's a pretty sportinglittle event."

Army officials said that Schoomaker's failure to file his 2008 Program Objective Memorandum was not intended as a rebuke to Rumsfeld, and that the Defense secretary had backed Schoomaker since the chief of staff raised the issue with him directly.

Still, some Army officials said Schoomaker expressed concern about recent White House budget moves, such as the decision in May to use $1.9 billion out of the most recent emergency spending bill for border security, including deployment of 6,000 National Guard troops at the Mexican border.

Army officials said $1.2 billion of that money came out of funds originally intended for Army war expenses.

"The president has got to take care of his border mission; he needs to find a source of funds so he can play a zero-sum game — he takes it out of defense," the senior Army official said. "But when he takes it out of defense, the lion's share is coming out of the outfit that's really in extremis in the current operating environment in the war."

Rumsfeld has not set a new deadline for the Army to submit its budget plan. The Army official said staffers thought they could submit a revised plan by November, in time for President Bush to unveil his 2008 budget early next year.

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Army Warns Rumsfeld It's Billions Short