...Where Obama regarded the $58.8 billion in active war funds for the Near and Middle East as a ceiling, the armed services and appropriations panels may view it as a floor to which they could add dollars, said Katherine Blakeley, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, in a briefing for reporters.
Though derided as a “gimmick” or “slush fund,” the $8 billion added to the overseas war funding account last year allowed a polarized Congress and the Obama administration to reach a larger budget deal. But the administration’s fiscal 2017 budget request, expected at $524.2 billion, is apt to start $22 billion “in the hole” due to continued caps from the 2011 Budget Control Act, Blakeley said. She also projected a $104 billion cumulative delta in the five-year plan ending in 2021...