White House Proposes War Funding Cap Over Next Decade

The White House has proposed capping war spending at $450 billion over the next decade, U.S. Defense Department officials said on Feb. 13.

The move is part of an effort to prevent the military services from shifting money from the base budget to so-called overseas contingency operations (OCO) accounts as defense spending flattens over the next five years.

The OCO budget — once called the supplemental — contains funding for programs, personnel, maintenance and other activities directly associated with military warfighting operations. The Pentagon counts these funds separate from its base budget.

“The administration has proposed a cap on total OCO spending in fiscal ’13 through fiscal ’21, and the rationale is that they want to limit the ability of all of us, including the Congress, to move money from base into OCO,” Pentagon Comptroller Robert Hale said during a Feb. 13 briefing at the Pentagon.

The Pentagon has requested $88.5 billion in 2013, primarily for operations in Afghanistan. About $2.9 billion of the funding is Iraq-related activities, such as security cooperation and resetting equipment.

DoD did not provide OCO estimates between 2014 and 2017. Instead, budget officials used a $44.5 billion placeholder. Budget officials customarily have not projected war funding beyond the current year’s spending request.

The $450 billion OCO spending cap should not impact operations, Hale noted. The international mission in Afghanistan is expected to end in 2014.

[U]nder our current rough plans for Afghanistan, we think that’s fine,” he said. “And so we’re OK with it.”

The Pentagon sent Congress a $525 billion base budget proposal on Feb. 13. The Budget Control Act of 2011 requires DoD to cut $487 billion in planned spending over the next decade.

Over the next five years, the Pentagon’s budget remains relatively flat. Over that period, DoD plans to cut $259 billion in planned spending.