A Capitol Police Radio System in the War Supplemental?

President Obama promised that the $83.4 billion 2009 war supplemental spending bill he sent to Capitol Hill yesterday would be the last one ever, and the Office of Management and Budget declared that in the future the president is committed to "honest budgeting and fiscal discipline" in preparation of budgets.

Based on a quick read of the detailed supplemental request, one wonders if it would have been a good idea to exercise some fiscal discipline in this bill, starting with Congress. (I know, fiscal discipline and Congress is an oxymoron.)

The bill includes a $71.6 million line item for the Capitol Police to buy a nifty, new encrypted VHF radio system capable of operations on streets around the Hill as well as in buildings and tunnels, with funding to run through 2012.

Why is this item in a war supplemental? OMB director Peter Orszag said in a letter to Obama that "as a matter of comity, appropriation requests for the legislative branch are transmitted without change." I'm sure glad House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif, only wanted a radio system and not an air force for the Capitol Police.

Then there's the annual wildfire suppression budget line, a feature of war supplementals ever since President Bush hatched the idea six years ago. This year's firefighting tab includes $200 million for the National Forest Service and another $50 millon for the National Park Service.

I live in the mountain West, am well aware of the danger posed by wildfires and I'm a fan of all of Smokey Bear's pals, but this does not meet the "honest budgeting" test. I also wonder how the Forest Service and Park Service eventually will manage to carry out their wildfire suppression missions without supplemental largesse.

The Quadrennial Fire Review released last December by the Interior and Agriculture Departments, said supplemental funding to fight wildfires has totaled just under $500 million in five years, or 27 per cent of the total firefighting budget. That buys a lot of shovels, hoses and fire bomber time.

The State Department racked up more than $1 billion in supplemental funds for new or improved embassies, as well as $5.5 million for mobile mail screening units for embassies and consulates worldwide. These systems are filled with all kinds of gizmos to detect explosives and chemicals that are probably needed, but why are they funded in the Defense supplemental?

It's hard to figure out the exact funding for specific Defense computer and communications systems in the supplemental, because they're lumped in with other line items. But the bill does note that several large but unspecified communications projects in Iraq and Afghanistan were imperiled by the decline of the dollar against the Euro. This required a $100 million increase in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Security Investment Program funding line, which supports those programs. Maybe next year there'll be a return of fiscal discipline, resulting in a stronger dollar, and Defense won't need to make such a request again.