A brief examination of the Defense appropriations records of Mr. Barack Obama and Mr. John McCain affords insight into their legislative approaches to Defense spending and programs, particularly within the Army's Iraq mission.

Mr. Barack Obama has historically supported Emergency Supplemental Appropriations, especially when they are tied to metrics regarding logistical benchmarks for the deployment or redeployment of troops and equipment.

One such bill in particular is HR 1591, passed April 26, 2007, stipulating that, among other Departmental appropriations, troops must be ready to deploy or re-deploy in short order pending the President's command. The bill (on which Mr. McCain did not vote) included an additional $20,373,379,000 in procurement dollars to be made available to Army Operation and Maintenance through September, 2009, but with a focus on the expeditionary support of troops should adjustments need to be made in goal direction. Support of such a program is indicative of a support of general logistics and resource management, such as the following opportunity:

STRATEGIC SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT AND DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM

• Status: Forecast Pre-RFP
• Solicitation Release date: 3/2010
• Competition Type: Full and Open
• Primary Offering: Base Operations/Facilities Management

Mr. John McCain has also historically supported such regulations, and is also generally supportive of additional funding to support troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In his Senate response to a Consolidated Appropriations Act in 2008, Mr. McCain called out a House-passed bill (on which Mr. Obama did not vote) for appropriations as giving negligible support to troops, saying it "fails to provide funding for our troops fighting in Iraq and actually contains explicit prohibition against the use of funds for Operation Iraqi Freedom." The amendment Mr. McCain supported to remedy this omission, HR 2764, was passed to include with the appropriations $70 billion in funding for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Support of such a program is indicative of support of tactical operations on the ground in the theatre, such as the following opportunity:

LOGISTICS STAFF SUPPORT PERSONAL SERVICES TO SUPPORT MNF-I IN IRAQ

• Status: Forecast Pre-RFP
• Solicitation Release date: 02/2009
• Competition Type: Full and Open
• Primary Offering: Professional Services

Although the candidates may differ in their opinions on U.S. global presence, their voting shows that both give backing to our forces regardless of the mission they are fulfilling.