Jonathan's Iraq piece earlier today linked the CAP suggestion that Congress

can place an amendment on the [upcoming FY07] supplemental funding bill that states that if the administration wants to increase the number of troops in Iraq above 150,000, it must provide a plan for their purpose and require an up or down vote on exceeding that number.

Meanwhile, Brer Murtha, chairman of defense apps, has been talking about the surge to Ms Huffington:

"Money is the only way we can stop it for sure."...

He says he wants to "fence the funding," denying the president the resources to escalate the war, instead using the money to take care of the soldiers as we bring them home from Iraq "as soon as we can."

Which got me thinking about precedents.

Fortunately, we get some help from the CRS boys, in the form of their report (PDF) Congressional Use of Funding Cutoffs Since 1970 Involving U.S. Military Forces and Overseas Deployments.

The upshot is that funding cutoffs have been passed in relation to only three conflicts: Vietnam, Somalia and Rwanda.

VN was decades ago, Rwanda was de minimis. Somalia, though, is interesting.

We get more detail in other CRS reports (also PDF): this one War Powers Resolution: Presidential Compliance and thisU.S. Armed Forces Abroad:  Selected Congressional Roll Call Votes Since 1982. (Also of interest is the (HTML!) reportThe War Powers Resolution after Thirty Years.)

None other than our old pal Bobby Byrd offered an amendment to HR 3116 (the FY94 defense apps bill) which passed 76-23 and eventually became §8151 of PL 103-139, the effect of which was to cut off funding for operations in Somalia after 31 March 1994, with specified exceptions.

Now, that's the most tenuous bridgehead established on what is clearly a direly technically complex area. The CRS material is densely packed with details of Congressional action on past military commitments.

If Murtha goes live with his attempt to cut off funding from the surge, or anything like it, there'll be homework!

Update [2007-1-9 7:22:22 by skeptic06]:

A Kossack has a useful guide to the detail of DOD budgeting.

Even more homework...