ORIGINAL: witpqs
ORIGINAL: el cid again
You don't understand our system. If it is critical - and one of only 12 (now to be 11 or 10 because of unplanned issues)
CVAs is critical - JCS does NOT need to even consult Congress. They have emergency funding. You order the (whatever) and the fund is automatically refilled next period (4 weeks or less) - and if needs be you do it again.
Unless the constitution has been changed, any funds, be they in emergency accounts or otherwise, have to be appropriated by the US Congress and approved by the President (who was Clinton during the years in question). The procedure you describe is wonderful, but it's like counter-flooding - it works for a while.
Edited to add: [END HIJACK MODE!]
I agree with your latter comment.
But the former one is based on a misunderstanding: all the Constitution requires is that a funding bill originate in the House, be approved by the Senate and signed by the President. It is perfectly legal to designate emergency discretionary funds to any official or agency - although as far as I know only JCS has a significant amount of this.
Funding maintenance is not glamourous (like procurement of fighter planes or tanks or warships is) - and it is quite true that we have a tendency not to invest enough in it. Bad as you may think Clinton was, Bush the Second is far worse: the Navy is not even procuring warships any more (we got - what - 5 of 7 in 2007? which is to say a 150 ship fleet if sustained and ships lasted 30 years - which in many cases they do not). All the noise about "sea basing" in this DOD is political noise - since we are not funding actual sea forces.
A ship's captain - particularly of a captital ship - has a peculiar job. He has a responsibility to the ship, the crew, the Navy and the nation, and it does not always happen that this responsibility is compatable with what is politically convenient for the President or what Congress wishes to fund. Letting a vital asset like a CVA go to seed is NOT EVER acceptable behavior - and no one is selected for such a command who is not thought to understand that sort of thing. [In the Navy nuclear field, they will not even send you to school until they are sure you will disobey direct orders from your commanding officer in a combat situation - if he wants you to violate a standing safety protocol - which not even the President can order you to disregard. UNTIL the burocracy changes a standing order, it has precedence over operational orders, and lowly enlisted man or not, you cannot have the job if you won't insist the rules are honored - however inconvenient it may be on some occasion. I once was in a collision at sea - it got real bad when three helos crashed with all hands moving DC people from the ships involved - never mind that the original collision also killed two sailors. It was the sort of thing that ruins a career - but whose career depends on the evidence available to a Navy Board of Inquiry. In this case, the fault lie with an officer of the deck who disregarded advice from CIC not to stand into Midway Island - because another ship standing out was on the wrong side of the channel. IF the CIC log existed, THEN he would be accountable. IF it were somehow lost, his word would be taken over all those in CIC. The CIC CPO signed out the log, started a new one, and took it to the ECM shack - ordering me to lock in the ECM safe. "Change the combination. Personally guard the safe until ordered to open it by a Navy Board of Inquiry. Do not open the safe for anyone, including me, or the captain, under any circumstances." I spent an interesting three days limping back to PH - when various officers tried various kinds of threats. But opening the safe with torches would seem a little too suspicious - given the Radarmen saying what was in the log - and no one ever did figure out a way to get me to disobey the order from a Chief not even in my direct chain of command. Such things are SOP for the Navy: a captain has broad authority, particularly on his own ship - but not enough to permit obstruction of justice - or failing to insure minimum maintenance either. In the Navy you do what you need to do. In the Marines, they will even promote you for it - while in the Navy - you might not be promoted - you at least will be respected and never in trouble for doing the right thing.]
