Forum: Air Force Life

USAF transfers $800 Million in personnel funds to to Army for Iraq ops

Date: May 25, 2007

The Air Force has transferred $800 million from its personnel accounts into Army coffers to finance that service’s operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, with the money being restored to the Air Force budget once lawmakers pass an emergency warfighting supplemental bill.

The April transfer of funds was part of a larger $1.6 billion reprogramming action, in which the Air Force and Navy each sent $800 million to the Army.

The Air Force funding came from personnel accounts, Maj. Morshe Araujo, a service spokeswoman, said in a May 22 telephone interview. She declined to provide further information.

At the same time, an additional $1.4 billion transfer from the Air Force and Navy to the Army for war spending is under consideration, according to Acting Army Secretary Pete Geren. InsideDefense.com first reported the potential shift in funding.

A Pentagon spokesman told Inside the Air Force this week that he had no knowledge of a second reprogramming action.

At press time (May 24), the House was set to vote on a second version of the fiscal year 2007 emergency warfighting supplemental. The House and the Senate passed a version of the supplemental last month, however, President Bush vetoed the war spending bill because it included a deadline for withdrawal from Iraq and several billion dollars in domestic spending.

The latest version of the bill -- which does not include troop withdrawal language -- could reach the White House by the end of the week.

Before the veto of the first version of the bill, a senior Air Force official -- speaking to reporters on the condition of anonymity -- said the service could use fourth-quarter budget money to continue funding combat operations overseas until Congress passes the emergency funding legislation (Inside the Air Force, April 13, p3).

Training and other operations could be affected if the bill fails to win congressional and White House endorsements, the official noted.

“We’ll be OK unless we’re hit with another bill,” the official said in April. “We’ll be OK until we can get the supplemental signed.”

At the time, the Air Force had already burned $5.5 billion to $6 billion of supplemental money that was added to the FY-07 Defense Appropriations Act, the source added.

“I think what [the Office of the Secretary of Defense] will do . . . is they’ll roll fourth-quarter money forward so they don’t have to go out and bill the Navy and the Air Force to pay for that; and they can roll Army fourth-quarter money forward, too,” the source said. “This is one of the most attractive options and [Pentagon Comptroller Tina Jonas is] working that hard. You can imagine . . . her whole day is to try to figure out how not to shut something down and to continue to finance” military operations in the United States and overseas.

The Air Force has requested $11.8 billion in its FY-08 warfighting supplemental, according to Pentagon budget documents. The request is in addition to the $5.5 billion “bridge” money it received for FY-07 last year.

The service would be looking to “shut something down,” as well as suspend generic exercises “that are not directly tied to the deployment” if lawmakers cannot agree on the legislation, the official added. -- Marcus Weisgerber