The House’s top Defense appropriator has pledged to help strengthen the role of the Pentagon’s comptroller in an effort to curb lobbying by the individual military services for controversial programs.

Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman John P. Murtha ’s call came as President-elect Barack Obama announced that he would nominate Robert F. Hale to become the Pentagon’s next comptroller. As comptroller, Hale would essentially act as the chief financial officer for the Defense Department, which has the largest budget of any enterprise in the world.

Murtha, D-Pa., said he wants to help raise the profile and influence of the comptroller’s position to avoid conflicts within the department. “What I’m trying to do is empower the comptroller so we don’t have guys going around him, so we can have a coordinated effort,” he said. “There will be better coordination this year, I can assure you of that.”

The Appropriations panel will work more directly and exclusively through the comptroller, Murtha said. Military service officials will still have their opportunity to weigh in during committee hearings.

Confusing and contradictory messages coming from various parts of the department are frustrating congressional efforts to appropriate funds, Murtha said. “We can’t have them telling us one thing one day and then telling us something else the next. We’ve got to get it together,” he said.

Hale is the executive director of the American Society of Military Comptrollers and served as Air Force comptroller from 1994 to 2001. He was assistant director for national security at the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and served on the Defense Business Board under then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

Obama also announced Thursday that he will nominate former Pentagon Comptroller William Lynn as deputy secretary of Defense and Michèle Flournoy, president of the Center for a New American Security, as undersecretary of Defense for policy. All three are Clinton-era Defense officials.

Experts and former officials praised Hale’s appointment but were skeptical regarding Murtha’s desire to end the longstanding practice whereby military officials climb the Hill to petition for pet programs.

Dov Zakheim, who was the Pentagon comptroller from 2001 to 2004 and is now a vice president at Booz Allen Hamilton, said that Hale’s experience both at the Pentagon and CBO made him the perfect choice for the comptroller’s job, which often includes defending Defense budgets before Congress.

But he said both lawmakers and military service officials enable the lobbying culture in Congress, and both must be involved in any attempt to change that culture.

“The only reason people do end runs around the Office of the Secretary of Defense is because they have people on the Hill listening to them,” Zakheim said. “Murtha’s idea is good, but he’s got to enforce it on his side of Pennsylvania Avenue.”

Karen Dahut, also a Booz Allen vice president who has worked extensively with Hale, said the comptroller could advise the services but probably couldn’t force them to stop working with lawmakers directly on areas of mutual interest. “I’m not sure how realistic it is at the end of the day,” she said of Murtha’s statements.

Tough Job Awaits