Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
ArmyTimes.com
May 6, 2008 By William H. McMichael and Rick Maze, Staff writers
In an announcement that puts troops and their families in the middle of a political dispute, a Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday that the Army will not be able to pay soldiers after June 15 unless Congress approves an emergency war funding bill.
The claim drew a quick rebuke from Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., chairman of the House defense appropriations subcommittee, who is working on such a bill.
Murtha said there is no threat to military paychecks and that it is inappropriate for the Pentagon to try to involve soldiers and their families in a political dispute over how much money is needed to pay for ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and exactly when the money is needed.
However, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell was very clear in a meeting with reporters.
“June 15th is the last payroll the Army at this point can make without congressional action,” he said.
Morrell said the Pentagon has “for months” been funding the wars by borrowing from personnel budget accounts. But those accounts “are about to run dry,” he said.
Morrell also said Army payroll accounts “are just running dry faster” and that if Congress does not act by May 26, “we will have to come back to them and ask them for permission to reprogram money so that we can take money from some of the other services — the Navy, the Air Force — and use those payroll dollars to pay the Army.”
“But all of these measures — the reprogramming request, if we get to that point — will not buy us much more time,” Morrell said. “And we’re talking weeks of additional funds; not much more than that.”
The Pentagon, which received $70 billion in war funding last fall, is seeking an additional $108 billion — a figure that includes money for State Department wartime operations — to pay for operations through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are costing an average of $11.5 billion per month, according to the Pentagon.
Providing that money has proven difficult due to a lack of votes. With many anti-war Democrats refusing to vote for additional funding for Iraq operations, House leaders are trying to put together a bill that will get votes by adding some nondefense items. They are operating under an assumption that they have until Memorial Day to pass a bill.
Murtha said threatening paychecks is a mistake. “It is unacceptable for them to say something like that,” he said. “It is unacceptable for the Pentagon to make a political statement like that, scaring troops and their families in time of war.
“They know they’re going to be paid, and we know they’re going to be paid,” Murtha said. “They did this same thing one time before, and I told them to knock it off because it was unnecessarily scaring people.”
Morrell said Defense Secretary Robert Gates sent letters to congressional leaders Monday night saying he is “encouraged” to hear of what he described as Congress’s intention to approve the supplemental funding by Memorial Day. And a Pentagon budget team briefed Capitol Hill staffers Tuesday morning.
Still, Gates wrote, “We also have a responsibility to plan for the possibility that this goal may not be achieved.”
Gates said he has ordered his staff to keep Congress informed of Pentagon contingency planning.
Troops would get paid, if history is any guide. The Civil War-era Feed and Forage Act allows the Pentagon to spend more than is budgeted in a given year for clothing, subsistence, fuel, quarters, transportation and medical supplies. Invoking the Act requires congressional notification, and Congress must appropriate the funds.
It was last invoked in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. It was also invoked in 1990, when a total of $1.6 billion was obligated to meet the military’s needs during the run-up to the 1991 Gulf War.
In December, Morrell raised the possibility of invoking the act again should the need arise.
On Tuesday, the Senate Appropriations Committee announced plans to meet Thursday afternoon to put together its version of the war funding bill.
May 6, 2008 By William H. McMichael and Rick Maze, Staff writers
In an announcement that puts troops and their families in the middle of a political dispute, a Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday that the Army will not be able to pay soldiers after June 15 unless Congress approves an emergency war funding bill.
The claim drew a quick rebuke from Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., chairman of the House defense appropriations subcommittee, who is working on such a bill.
Murtha said there is no threat to military paychecks and that it is inappropriate for the Pentagon to try to involve soldiers and their families in a political dispute over how much money is needed to pay for ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and exactly when the money is needed.
However, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell was very clear in a meeting with reporters.
“June 15th is the last payroll the Army at this point can make without congressional action,” he said.
Morrell said the Pentagon has “for months” been funding the wars by borrowing from personnel budget accounts. But those accounts “are about to run dry,” he said.
Morrell also said Army payroll accounts “are just running dry faster” and that if Congress does not act by May 26, “we will have to come back to them and ask them for permission to reprogram money so that we can take money from some of the other services — the Navy, the Air Force — and use those payroll dollars to pay the Army.”
“But all of these measures — the reprogramming request, if we get to that point — will not buy us much more time,” Morrell said. “And we’re talking weeks of additional funds; not much more than that.”
The Pentagon, which received $70 billion in war funding last fall, is seeking an additional $108 billion — a figure that includes money for State Department wartime operations — to pay for operations through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are costing an average of $11.5 billion per month, according to the Pentagon.
Providing that money has proven difficult due to a lack of votes. With many anti-war Democrats refusing to vote for additional funding for Iraq operations, House leaders are trying to put together a bill that will get votes by adding some nondefense items. They are operating under an assumption that they have until Memorial Day to pass a bill.
Murtha said threatening paychecks is a mistake. “It is unacceptable for them to say something like that,” he said. “It is unacceptable for the Pentagon to make a political statement like that, scaring troops and their families in time of war.
“They know they’re going to be paid, and we know they’re going to be paid,” Murtha said. “They did this same thing one time before, and I told them to knock it off because it was unnecessarily scaring people.”
Morrell said Defense Secretary Robert Gates sent letters to congressional leaders Monday night saying he is “encouraged” to hear of what he described as Congress’s intention to approve the supplemental funding by Memorial Day. And a Pentagon budget team briefed Capitol Hill staffers Tuesday morning.
Still, Gates wrote, “We also have a responsibility to plan for the possibility that this goal may not be achieved.”
Gates said he has ordered his staff to keep Congress informed of Pentagon contingency planning.
Troops would get paid, if history is any guide. The Civil War-era Feed and Forage Act allows the Pentagon to spend more than is budgeted in a given year for clothing, subsistence, fuel, quarters, transportation and medical supplies. Invoking the Act requires congressional notification, and Congress must appropriate the funds.
It was last invoked in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. It was also invoked in 1990, when a total of $1.6 billion was obligated to meet the military’s needs during the run-up to the 1991 Gulf War.
In December, Morrell raised the possibility of invoking the act again should the need arise.
On Tuesday, the Senate Appropriations Committee announced plans to meet Thursday afternoon to put together its version of the war funding bill.