This request is part of a massive set of budget documents the Pentagon delivered to Congress on Wednesday night, but refuses to release publicly. It spells out how the Pentagon wants to spend the $50 billion it is seeking to pay for operations in the war on terrorism during the first few months of FY-07.

Sources familiar with the unbound volume -- “Fiscal Year 2007 President's Budget: Department of Defense Budget Allowance Details” -- say it exceeds 1,000 pages, is dated June 2006 and was delivered to select lawmakers on the defense authorization and appropriation committees.

The Pentagon, these sources say, wants Congress to appropriate $8.6 billion for procurement; $314 million for research and development; $30.2 billion for operations and maintenance; $5.4 billion for personnel accounts; and $5.3 billion for “other” accounts, which includes funding efforts like the Iraqi Freedom Fund.

Tina Jonas, the Pentagon's comptroller, said through a spokesman, “The material provided to the appropriations and authorization committees this week by the Department of Defense was not a formal budget amendment but an informal package of information to assist the committees in their work of allocating the emergency allowance identified in the president's [fiscal year] 2007 budget submission. 

“It would be inappropriate to release the details,” she added.

Defense experts say it is unusual for the Pentagon to withhold information about unclassified elements of the budget after details are provided to Congress. Supporting documentation is usually made available in electronic form after it is provided to lawmakers, often on the Defense Department comptroller's Web site.

“That's very odd,” said Steven Kosiak, a defense budget analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

Steven Aftergood, who runs the Project on Government Secrecy for the Federation of American Scientists, believes the choice to deliver details on the $50 billion budget data only in paper form -- and only to a handful of lawmakers -- indicates Defense Department leaders want little attention paid to this issue.

“Nowadays it takes a deliberate decision to produce something in hard copy only,” said Aftergood.  “And the reason for doing that is to curtail distribution. Now why would they make that choice? They aren't claiming that it is classified. There's no national security restriction. Rather they prefer to evade the public spotlight. It may serve their short-term interest, but it doesn't service the larger national interest.”

He added: “It's a policy choice they have made to keep the press and the public a few steps behind. Among other things it suggests a lack of confidence in the merits of their own case. They're acting as if they have something to hide.”

Given that the budget package was delivered after three of the four defense committees completed their mark-ups of the defense bill, what effect it will have remains unclear.

“Clearly a lot of work went into this,” said one congressional source, thumbing though the document. “It would have helped if it had come before we marked our bill.”

The Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee is the only committee that has yet to complete its mark-up of the Pentagon's FY-07 spending request.

The House in May passed a defense authorization bill approving a $50 billion supplemental request to support operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. It authorized $5.1 billion for weapon system procurement; $37 million for research and development; $31.9 billion for operations and maintenance; $950 million for defense health programs; $9.4 billion for personnel accounts; and $2.5 billion for classified programs.

The House on June 16 approved a defense appropriations bill that also sets aside $50 billion for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, including: $5.5 billion for procurement; $37.4 billion for operations and maintenance; $5.9 billion for personnel accounts; and $1 billion for increased fuel costs.

The Senate Armed Services Committee, meanwhile, on June 22 authorized a similar $50 billion bridge fund for the war on terrorism, authorizing $2.1 billion for procurement -- significantly less than the $8.6 billion the Pentagon is seeking -- as well as $32.2 billion for operations and maintenance; $960 million for defense health programs; $7.3 billion to pay troops; $3 billion for classified programs; $2.1 billion for efforts to defeat roadside bombs; and $2.2 billion for the Iraqi Freedom Fund.

The Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee is expected to mark up its version of the defense spending bill in late July.