Gates tells top brass: Talk to me before Congress

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon's top military and civilian leaders have been reminded by Defense Secretary Robert Gates to alert him, before Congress, of any "unfunded requirements" they detect in President Barack Obama's fiscal 2010 budget request.

For more than a decade, lawmakers have asked the heads of the Army, Navy and Air Force plus top force commanders to send them the services' customary wish lists for programs that they deem necessary but which did not make it into the spending plan.

Gates, in an April 30 memo obtained by Reuters, said existing statutes provide for the Joint Chiefs of Staff to make such recommendations to Congress "after first informing the Secretary of Defense."

"Accordingly, should you determine there are FY 2010 unfunded requirements that are responsive to the request from Congress, I expect you to inform me of such a determination so we can schedule the opportunity for you to brief me on the details," he wrote.

Top Republicans on the House of Representatives' Armed Service Committee already have criticized Gates, a former director of central intelligence, over secrecy in the budget process.

"Congress is mandated by the Constitution to raise and support armies and navies, including funding the budget for our defense," lawmakers said in a letter spearheaded by Randy Forbes of Virginia, the top Republican on the readiness subcommittee.

"To do this, it requires accountability and transparency," Forbes said, slamming a non-disclosure agreement that Gates required Pentagon officials to sign at the start of the budget process.

"By instituting a gag order on senior defense officials, the administration is essentially preventing members of Congress from asking the questions necessary to ensure our soldiers are equipped to do their jobs, and is prohibiting media and public awareness on important defense issues," said Forbes.

A spokesman for Gates, the lone holdover from President George W. Bush's cabinet, had no immediate response. Gates is proposing to shift billions of dollars away from futuristic weapons toward systems geared for wars like those in Iraq and Afghanistan.

(Reporting by Jim Wolf; editing by Gerald E. McCormick)