President Barack Obama has written to House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), asking for swift approval of his request for $83.4 billion in supplemental appropriations to "fund ongoing military, diplomatic and intelligence operations." Obama also told Pelosi this would be the last supplemental to fund military operations he planned, intending to move the costs for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq into the regular budget request.
"As I noted when first I introduced my budget in February, this is the last planned war supplemental," Obama writes Pelosi. "Since September 2001, the Congress has passed 17 separate emergency funding bills totaling $822.1 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. ... We must break that recent tradition and include future military costs in the regular budget so that we have an honest, more accurate, and fiscally responsible estimate of Federal spending."
The request is "only intended to bridge us over until the end of September, when this spending will come under the FY 2010 appropriations bill that should be in effect at that time," a Senate Democratic foreign policy staffer noted. "So the smaller amount is not surprising."
The White House announcement is here.
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