Sources says Pentagon to get $6.5 billion more for this year

By From Jamie McIntyre
CNN Military Affairs Correspondent

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration will send a request to Congress for a supplemental defense appropriation for this year of $6.5 billion, Pentagon sources said Thursday.

The Pentagon says it needs the extra money to cover higher maintenance and fuel costs as well as to fund new military health-care benefits.

Pentagon officials said the subject of the supplemental appropriation came up at a meeting Thursday on Capitol Hill between Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and top Republicans and Democrats of the Armed Services and defense appropriations panels of both houses of Congress.

Pentagon officials said they hope Congress will approve the request before the July 4 recess to head off what they say would be a need to curtail flight hours and other military training.

During the presidential campaign, President Bush promised the military "help is on the way," and then surprised the military brass by killing a proposed supplemental appropriation for fiscal year 2001.

Pentagon officials said they always expected that the president would eventually be convinced of the need for the infusion of the money.

But administration officials insist they are philosophically opposed to the idea of routine supplemental appropriations beyond the Pentagon's regular budget, and that, in the future, the Pentagon should be adequately funded so it does not have to rely on emergency appropriations.

Pentagon officials said Rumsfeld's meeting with key congressional leaders was "routine consultations," which will continue as Rumsfeld works on his top-to-bottom review of the U.S. military.