Early last month when Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced a handful of major defense program cancellations, this blog commended the fact that news of Dr. Gates' decisions had been so closely held.  Now comes news that the Secretary sent a 30 April memo to the Pentagon's top military and civilian leaders directing them to alert him, before Congress, of any "unfunded requirements" that they have.  Not surprisingly, senior Members of the Congress are upset with this development.  The Congress is responsible for funding the Federal Government, including the Department of Defense and their concerns over Gates' directive go to the center of the traditional government balance of power -- the President proposes, the Legislature disposes -- debate.  As the current controversy over Congressional earmarks suggests, Members often exercise their "power of the pursestrings" in ways that may not actually/always be in the best interest of the taxpayers or even national defense.  To avoid making poor decisions based on less-than-official (often industry-provided) information regarding these earmarks, House and Senate Defense Authorizers and Appropriators in the 1990s requested that each of the Services formally develop and submit Unfunded Priorities Lists (UPLs) or Unfunded Requirements (UFRs)  that identify and rank the specific Service priorities that did not make the cut in OSD chop that proceded the DoD budget submission.  With this information in hand, thoughtful legislators and staff on the key defense committees were able to sort through huge numbers of constituent plus-up requests -- all of which, of course, claimed to be of high priority -- secure in the knowledge of what the Services really wanted.  Congress has the right to the information required to take its important decisions.  Everyone agrees that more information and greater transparency is better.  This includes a right of the Congress to reach out directly to Service leadership.  Eliminating the UPL process may help the Secretary of Defense control the Military Services, but it does not help the Congress do its job and impedes the overall budget process.  Here's hoping that Congressional Republicans push back and that the Obama Administration recognizes the value of the UPL/UFR submissions.