	Introduction

Congress recently completed action on the Bush Administration's FY2004 supplemental budgetrequest to fund continuing military operations and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan. (1) A majorissue in the congressional debate on this, and other such supplementals of the past, is whethermilitary and peacekeeping operations should be funded with supplemental requests or via the regulardefense appropriations process. Some Members of Congress have urged the President to include thecosts of current and future operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in the Department of Defense's(DOD's) regular appropriations, arguing that these are now ongoing operations that should beplanned for and funded in the annual defense budget. Others prefer supplementals due to theunpredictability of military and peacekeeping circumstances in Iraq and Afghanistan. Thisunpredictability, they argue, makes it extremely difficult to estimate the costs of either type ofoperation in advance. This report examines 46 cases since FY1990 in which Congress approved funding for combat or peacekeeping operations using regular appropriations, supplemental appropriations, or acombination of the two. Table 1 shows that since 1990, Congress generally has funded combatoperations with supplemental appropriations. In initial post-combat peacekeeping operations,however, Congress has tended to rely on a combination of supplemental and regular appropriations. As peacekeeping operations have become ongoing, Congress has switched to using regularappropriations.
Congress recently completed action on the Bush Administration's FY2004 supplemental budget request to fund continuing military operations and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan. It wassigned into law, P.L. 108-106 , on November 6, 2003. A major issue in the congressional debate onthis, and other such supplementals of the past, is whether military and peacekeeping operationsshould be funded with supplemental requests or via the regular defense appropriations process. Some Members of Congress have urged the President to include the costs of current and futureoperations in Iraq and Afghanistan in the Department of Defense's (DOD's) regular appropriations,arguing that these are now ongoing operations that should be planned for and funded in the annualdefense budget. Others prefer supplementals due to the unpredictability of military andpeacekeeping circumstances in Iraq and Afghanistan. This unpredictability, they argue, makes itextremely difficult to estimate the costs of either type of operation in advance.
This report examines 46 cases since FY1990 in which Congress approved funding for combat or peacekeeping operations using regular appropriations, supplemental appropriations, or acombination of the two. The report shows that since 1990, Congress generally has funded combatoperations with supplemental appropriations. In initial stages of post-combat peacekeepingoperations, however, Congress has tended to rely on a combination of supplemental and regularappropriations. As peacekeeping operations have become ongoing, Congress has switched to usingregular appropriations.