How closely do the Administration and the Congress scrutinize budget requests for all that money?
Virtually all of this money has been authorized by Congress as “emergency supplemental” funding. That is supposed to mean “we didn’t expect it and we need it right away, so don’t waste time with the normal budget process.” And that is how it has been done. The funding request is prepared at the top of the Defense Department, but does not go through the regular internal budget planning process; it is waved through the White House, and lands—with minimal justification—on congressional desks. Normally, the defense budget is reviewed three times—by the Budget Committee, the Armed Services Committee, and the Appropriations Committee. Emergency supplementals skip the first two committees and go straight to the money guys—the appropriators. Over the past five years, the appropriators have held virtually no public hearings on the Iraq money; they just mark it up and push it through for a vote. So nobody is minding the store the way they should. 3. Is there any way of knowing exactly how that m
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