AFRICOM to work with Congress on budget request

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AFRICOM to work with Congress on budget request
By Steve Mraz, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Wednesday, September 17, 2008

U.S. Africa Command will work through the Defense Department to explain its budget request for the coming fiscal year to Congress, said a top AFRICOM officer on Monday.

The command, which is set to become fully operational on Oct. 1, is at risk of receiving 80 percent less funding than what was formally requested.

"If something bad were to happen, that would be bad," said Air Force Maj. Gen. Michael Snodgrass, AFRICOM chief of staff. "That’s a hypothetical. There’s no reason to even discuss hypotheticals. We’ll wait until we get a final budget amount. We’ll do an analysis on that budget amount, and we’ll have to determine what the way ahead is after that."

Last week, the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense recommended providing only $80.6 million in funding for fiscal year 2009. President Bush had requested $389 million for AFRICOM.

The Senate Appropriations Committee passed the 2009 defense bill, but the full report has not been available.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=57449