Briefly noted

Pentagon to ask Obama for $581 billion budget for next fiscal year

Fiscal crisis or no fiscal crisis, the Pentagon is getting ready to ask for its biggest budget yet. The Pentagon is telling the Obama transition team that it wants $581 billion for the next fiscal year, an increase of $67 billion. This  does not count cash needed to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The cash request “includes $524 billion in spending authority approved by the White House Office of Management and Budget this spring… as well as $57 billion in additional needs the Office of the Secretary of Defense identified over the summer,” reports Inside Defense. The final figure does includes some money — $12 billion — to pay for a few “predictable war costs,” Inside Defense adds. This, however, is less than what operations in Afghanistan and Iraq cost every month. Note that President George Bush inherited a Pentagon budget that was a mere $302 billion.

Security requirements for private aircraft arriving and departing the United States

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has enacted new rules changing the procedure for private aircraft to provide advance notice of their intended arrival or departure, and submit manifests of the persons on board. Private aircraft are defined as any aircraft, other than government or military, which are not engaged in carrying passengers or cargo for compensation. The new process is similar to the one currently in use by commercial aircraft and will standardize advance notice procedures for all CBP airports of entry.