January 16, 2009
Posted: January 16th, 2009 01:20 PM ET
(CNN) - Fiscal conservative Democrats in the House are already lobbying President-elect Obama to stop the practice of using emergency supplemental bills to pay for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to start including costs in annual budget. (A letter from the congressional Blue Dog coalition sent to the president-elect yesterday after the jump)
January 15, 2009 President-Elect Barack Obama Washington, DC Dear Mr. President-Elect: Congratulations on your historic election. As members of the Blue Dog Coalition, we applaud your commitment to restoring fiscal responsibility to the federal budget and look forward to working with you in this effort. In our view, a crucial first step must be to end the practice of funding US operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through emergency supplemental legislation, rather than through the normal appropriations process. Supplemental appropriations procedures allow Congress to expedite funding for responses to unforeseen emergencies, such as natural disasters or the initial stages of armed conflicts. Emergency designations have historically been short-lived. Only the first two years of the Vietnam War and the first year of the Korean War were funded through emergency procedures. The Bush Administration has stretched the definition of “emergency” far beyond its historical precedent. After more than five years in Iraq and seven years in Afghanistan, the Department of Defense is capable of predicting costs stemming from those conflicts with considerable accuracy. Yet the President has persisted in requesting war funding almost exclusively through emergency requests, often only as previous funding was on the verge of running out. The emergency designation and last-minute timing gave Congress little alternative but to place these requests on a legislative fast-track. The resulting timetable severely limited our ability to conduct effective oversight. And this repeated use of emergency supplemental legislation has obscured the impact of war funding on the budget deficit and national debt. In January 2007, the Coalition introduced H.Res. 97 – “Providing for Operation Iraqi Freedom Cost Accountability” – a measure that, among other things, called for funding the war in Iraq through the normal appropriations process. Leaders from across the political spectrum have since joined our calls to end this practice. Among them is the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, who in January of 2008 called for the use of supplementals to be “dramatically reduced” and to move war funding into “the base budget as rapidly as we can.” We respectfully urge you to include funds to cover expected costs for the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan within your fiscal year 2010 budget request for the Department of Defense. This would be an essential step toward restoring honesty, transparency, and accountability to federal spending. The Blue Dog Coalition stands ready to help. We share your concerns about the calamitous fiscal position that eight years of irresponsibility have helped create, and we look forward to working with you to minimize the debts that we leave to our children and grandchildren. Regards, Rep. Jane Harman Rep. Loretta Sanchez Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin Rep. Heath Shuler Rep. Adam Schiff Rep. Leonard Boswell Rep. Dan Boren Rep. Jim Marshall Rep. Jim Cooper Rep. Baron Hill Rep. Charlie Melancon Rep. Baron Hill Rep. David Scott Rep. Mike Michaud Rep. Brad Ellsworth Rep. Mike Ross Rep. Walt Minnick Rep. Michael Arcuri Rep. Charlie Wilson Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand Rep. Joe Baca Rep. Sanford Bishop Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Rep. John Tanner Rep. Jim Costa Rep. Jim Matheson Rep. Dennis Cardoza Rep. Henry Cuellar Rep. Allen Boyd Rep. Marion Berry Rep. John Barrow Rep. Frank Kratovil Rep. Patrick Murphy Rep. Lincoln Davis Rep. Travis Childers Rep. Parker Griffith Filed under: Blue Dog coalition President-elect Obama |
The latest political news from CNN's Best Political Team, with campaign coverage, 24-7. Sign up for our twice daily Ticker emails. Got a news tip or feedback? For complete political coverage, bookmark CNNPolitics.com. CNN=Politics Screensaver
New in the Ticker
hambypCNN: Steele and Kaine square off on health care, jobs, and Steele talks (a little bit) about his new book ... http://bit.ly/6kbvKz
Updated: Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:37:59 -0800 @HornickCNN: White House to government: Continue to open up: http://bit.ly/6SC11i
Updated: Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:07:15 -0800 hambypCNN: Michael Steele has a book coming out in Jan. Asked about it on CNN, Steele demurs: "Ya, that's what I'm hearing somewhere down the line."
Updated: Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:52:08 -0800 hambypCNN: @DanDoranBlum nice. hopefully you get two big wins over Pitt in one week.
Updated: Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:42:32 -0800 hambypCNN: @AP_Ken_Thomas excellent duane spencer reference. let's try to work in lee scruggs, too, before the season ends.
Updated: Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:14:50 -0800 Categories
Archive
Popular Posts
|
Loading weather data ...