By Megan Scully, CongressDaily
The military's reliance on war-related supplemental spending bills to buy new equipment has increased dramatically since the launch of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, becoming a major driver behind the growth of emergency spending packages, the Congressional Budget Office reported Monday.
Its analysis of funding trends, requested by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., found that procurement funding in supplemental appropriations bills rose from $10 billion in fiscal 2003 to $51 billion in fiscal 2007.
For this fiscal year, the Pentagon has requested $72 billion in emergency spending for new equipment, $26 billion of which has been appropriated. The remaining amount constitutes a large chunk of the additional $102.5 billion supplemental appropriations package Congress expects to take up in the next few months.
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