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Committee Cuts Missile Defense Funding By David Ruppe WASHINGTON — A congressional committee earlier this week called for trimming next year’s missile defense budget and urged tightening financial oversight of the Missile Defense Agency’s research and development operations (see GSN, May 26). In marking up the fiscal 2006 defense appropriations bill on Tuesday, the House Appropriations Committee approved $7.6 billion for the agency next year, $143 million less than requested by the administration. The reduction would be less than the $7.9 billion authorized by the House last month and $1.2 billion less than the agency received last fiscal year. In a report accompanying the appropriations bill, the committee said that relaxed financial restrictions on the research and development agency’s expenditures in recent years should be tightened, since the Bush administration last year achieved its goal of beginning to field elements of a ground-based long-range defense system (see GSN, Feb. 16). President George W. Bush in a December 2002 directive had ordered the systems, which include interceptor missiles, fielded by the end of fiscal 2004. “In order for MDA to achieve this goal, considerable financial flexibility was granted by Congress to allow the agency to respond rapidly to achieve” the initial capability, the report says. “Now that a working system operated by trained war fighters has been fielded, the Committee wishes to enhance financial oversight as the missile defense effort continues to move forward,” it says. For financial accounting, the committee directed the agency to break down 12 major program elements, “many of which total greater than $400 million in a single line,” into sub-elements. The current accounting approach, it said, obscures funding details and creates significant oversight issues.” The new breakdown would provide “greater visibility and oversight of the programs,” it said. In approving the fiscal 2006 defense authorization bill last month, the House Armed Services Committee approved $7.9 billion for the agency, a $100 million increase above the administration request. The extra $100 million was added at the suggestion of Representative John Spratt (D-S.C.) to enable the agency to conduct a realistic intercept test by the end of this fiscal year. The House approved the total along with that bill last month. The Senate Armed Services Committee last month approved the administration’s $7.8 billion requested amount. Missile Defense Capability ReportThe appropriations committee in its report also called for an assessment this year of the operational capabilities of U.S. boost-phase missile defense systems against ballistic missiles launched from North Korea and the Middle East against the United States. The study would also include an assessment of the quantity of systems needed to sustain defensive operations over various lengths of time, basing options, and life cycle costs of the systems. Center for Defense Information Research Analyst Victoria Sampson said that the United States currently lacks a system for intercepting ICBMs in the boost phase. She said though the administration in its budget this year cut funding for a program to develop such capability in the future, the Kinetic Energy Interceptor, and that “it sounds like the House [appropriators] are trying to ensure that there’s some reason for KEI to continue its existence.”
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