Summary: This testimony discusses the military's budgeting for operation and maintenance activities, which include recruitment and fielding of U.S. forces, equipment maintenance and repair, child care and family centers, transportation services, civilian personnel management and pay, and infrastructure maintenance. The Defense Department's (DOD) budget request of more than $250 billion for fiscal year 1998 includes nearly $94 billion, or 37 percent of the total, for operation and maintenance activities. DOD submits budget estimates that often differ from what the military services ultimately obligate for operation and maintenance activities. GAO (1) provides examples of differences in the services' budget estimates and obligations for some activities within the services' operation and maintenance accounts and (2) discusses the flexibility that the services have in obligating operation and maintenance funds and congressional visibility over the movement of those funds between various operation and maintenance activities.
