Tina Smith: “it is reality of declining defense budgets that not every program conceived by the Armed Forces or the defense industry…”

“it is reality of declining defense budgets that not every program conceived by the Armed Forces or the defense industry can be funded. The Services are forced to examine their military requirements and prioritize among many competing programs. When they do, disappointed defense contractors may seek legislative intervention to achieve objectives they could not satisfy in the budgeting process. An example of such activity exists in the House version of the defense authorization bill. The bill contains a provision that would require the Secretary of the Navy to spend $29 million, authorized and appropriated for other purposes in fiscal years before fiscal year 1997, for development and procurement of a pulse Doppler upgrade modification for the Navy's AN/SPS-48E radar system. In other words this provision would force the Navy to take money away from programs of higher priority that were considered and approved by Congress in prior years and allocate it to a program that failed to make the cut. Aside from this provision's abuse of the congressional authorization and appropriation process, complying with it would create an outyear demand for substantial additional resources that are not in the future years defense program. Thus, its fiscal abuses would proliferate into the future to undermine stronger and more urgently needed programs.”