DoD asks to transfer $9.7 billion to Army

DoD asks to transfer $9.7 billion to Army
By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday May 29, 2008 6:39:04 EDT

The Pentagon, still lacking more than $100 billion it has long requested to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through September, asked Congress on Tuesday for permission to transfer $9.7 billion to the Army and other agencies from the Navy and Air Force budgets as a stopgap measure.

If lawmakers do not take action on a new wartime supplemental spending request by June 9, the Pentagon said the Army, bearing the lion’s share of war burdens, will run out of money to pay its soldiers by June 15.

And even if the $9.7 billion reprogramming request is granted, the Pentagon said the money will fund only another few weeks of overall operations. Failure to pass the entire $108.1 billion supplemental request by mid-July, officials said, will exhaust all remaining military personnel and operations funding by late July and leave the department unable to meet both military and civilian payroll.

Service members and certain “essential” civilian personnel, including those serving in the war zones, would continue to serve without pay. Nonessential civilian employees would be laid off per applicable personnel rules, the Pentagon said.

One influential member of Congress, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., chairman of the House defense appropriations subcommittee, has said there is no threat to military paychecks and that the Pentagon’s stance is an unnecessary scare tactic.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/05/military_defensebudget_army_supplemental_052808w/



uhc comment: Looks like the Pentagon is using the old we-can't-pay-our troops mantra again. I sure wish my/our congresscritters would just stop funding the occupations.