Former Pentagon comptroller Bob Hale characterized a recently leaked Pentagon budget memo as “no surprise,” and that said officials discussed similar issues contained in it regularly.
“I don’t recall writing a memo quite like that one, but the issues that were in there are discussed regularly at staff meetings and as the Department tries to figure out how best to interact with the Congress,” he told The Hill in a recent phone interview.
{mosads}An internal Pentagon memo from May detailed its strategy to thwart the House GOP’s defense budget plans for 2017, by playing “hardball” in opposing a plan to shift $18 billion from the Pentagon’s war fund to its base budget.
The memo, written by Pentagon comptroller Mike McCord and Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs Stephen Hedger, noted that Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.), chairman of the defense appropriations subcommittee, “may be less enthused” about the plan and suggested “capitalizing on his discomfort.”
Hale also played down the impact of the memo, which Republicans have blasted as “shameless.”
“It shouldn’t be a surprise that they’re opposing it, so in that sense i don’t think it was news to Capitol Hill,” he said.
Hale, who served as Pentagon comptroller and chief financial officer from 2009 to 2014, said he had not read the memo, just read press reporting of it. The memo was first reported by Politico.
“Obviously the Department works to try to persuade Congress to do what it wants,” he said. “It shouldn’t be a surprise, they’ve been very public about saying they’re concerned about the $18B dollars.”
House and Senate Armed Services Committee leaders seeking a compromise bill are are discussing a compromise figure of $9 billion that would be shifted from the Pentagon’s war fund to its base budget, according to a congressional staffer.
The administration is also expected to soon submit a proposal that would increase the war fund account to pay for President Obama’s decision to keep 8,400 troops in Afghanistan.
Hale, currently the Booz Allen Hamilton Fellow, said he thinks there’s a “reasonable chance” Congress and the White House will work out some bipartisan agreement to raise defense and non-defense spending for 2017.
“I think there’s bipartisan agreement at this point that given the threats to U.S. security some larger amount of defense spending is appropriate,” he said.
The “immediate” challenge for the next administration will be to lift the budget caps for the 2018 defense budget.
Hale said the Obama administration’s five-year budget had called for an increase of $30 billion above what the caps would allow.
“They’ll have a couple of months to revise that budget — a little bit higher maybe if [Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump] wins, potentially, and then they’re going to have to deal with the issue that it’s well above the caps and either ask Congress to change the caps or submit offsets,” he said.
“It would be appropriate to raise [the caps],” he said.
He said his hope is that the next administration will work with Congress to get a broad budget agreement that looks at mandatory spending — Social Security, Medicare and other entitlements, as well as revenue.
“That would be my hope, obviously none of that is going to happen until we get a new president in place. But once a new administration is in place, i hope that they’ll consider a broad budget deal.”