| Abstrakt: |
Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, CRS estimates that the Administration has allocated a total of about $361 billion for military operations, reconstruction, embassy costs, and various foreign aid programs in Iraq and Afghanistan, and for enhanced security at defense bases. This total includes $50 billion in "bridge" funding for the Department of Defense (DOD) provided in H.J.Res. 68 /P.L.109-77, a FY2006 Continuing Resolution, which was signed by the President on September 30, 2005. More funds will be needed by DOD to cover the rest of the year. That total includes some $330 billion for DOD and $31 billion for foreign aid programs and embassy operations. If the bridge funds are split in a fashion similar to FY2005, funding would total about $255 billion for Iraq, about $83 billion for Afghanistan, and $24 billion for base security. Iraq's total is split between $230 billion for DOD and $25 billion for foreign operations. Afghanistan's total includes $77 billion for DOD and $6 billion for foreign operations. All base security funds go to DOD. Based on a CBO estimate that assumes a gradual drawdown in U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan between FY2006 and FY2010, war-related costs could total about $570 billion by the end of 2010. DOD's current monthly average spending rate is about $6 billion for Iraq, $1 billion for Afghanistan and $170 million for enhanced base security for the first nine months of FY2005. Compared to FY2004, those averages are 19% higher for Iraq, 8% lower for Afghanistan, and 47% lower for base security. The Department of Defense has not provided an overall reckoning of these funds by mission or military operation. Gaps in the figures raise questions such as whether DOD transferred $7 billion or $14 billion from peacetime funds to meet higher than expected wartime costs. DOD also used $2.5 billion from prior year monies to prepare for the Iraq war before passage of the joint resolution authorizing the use of force in Iraq in October 2002. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) also found that DOD had lost visibility on over $7 billion provided for the global war on terrorism. In this regard, Congress faces two issues -- how to get a transparent accounting by mission of all previously appropriated funds by adjusting current reporting, and how to ensure accurate accounting in the future by requiring that DOD budget and segregate warrelated spending. Congress provided about $100 billion to cover DOD's FY2005 costs -- about $35 billion more than in the previous year -- in two bills, including $25 billion in bridge funds and $75 billion in the FY2005 war supplemental for the rest of the fiscal year. In FY206, the full amount of war-related funding for FY2006 will depend on not only the $50 billion in bridge funding but also the amount provided in FY2006 appropriations and a FY2006 supplemental. This report will be updated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
