Lack of Supplemental Funding May Lead to Civilian Furloughs (Demo-RATS!)

American Forces Press Service ^ | Donna Miles

[SandRat]

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20, 2007 – The Defense Department is developing plans to send furlough notices to some civilian workers as early as mid-December if Congress doesn’t pass the $178 billion emergency supplemental funding bill quickly, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters today.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates notified Congress today that the Defense Department will need to borrow – or “reprogram” – funds from the Navy and Air Force and the working capital fund to cover ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, Morrell said.

“Without dedicated funding for the global war on terror, we have been forced to finance the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with money from the budgets of each of the services,” he said. As a result, the Army’s operations and maintenance budget is expected to dry up in early February, and the Marine Corps’ O&M money will run out in early March.

In addition, the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, which tests new projects, ideas, ways of doing business and equipment to counter IEDs, “won’t make it into the new year,” Morrell said. Retired Army Gen. Montgomery C. Meigs, the JIEDDO director, told reporters yesterday his funds will be depleted Dec. 1.

Gates’ reprogramming request will shift $3.7 billion from the Navy and Air Force payrolls and an $800 million excess in the working capital fund to Army, Marine Corps and JIEDDO operations. The reprogramming will sustain JIEEDO for a few more months, “but we can only keep the Army and Marines afloat for a couple of additional weeks,” Morrell said.

The reprogramming is the department’s only remaining option to keep afloat the Army and Marine Corps, which have been keeping up their war efforts at the expense of their own operations and maintenance budgets, Morrell said. “This is the last such move Congress will allow us to make,” he said.

Pentagon Spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters earlier today the Defense Department’s hands are tied with respect to legal constraints on shifting funds to cover shortfalls. “Those who think that we have some sort of flexibility here simply are misinformed,” he said. “We have very little reprogramming authority, very little. … You can’t do more than what they allow you to reprogram.”

As a result, Gates directed the Army and Marine Corps to begin planning to reduce operations at all Army bases by mid-February and all Marine installations by mid-March, Morrell said. “At that point, the bases will be all but shut down, able to provide only the most basic safety and security measures for those who reside there,” he said.

In addition, the department will begin notifying about 200,000 civilian employees and contractors “we can no longer afford their services and that, absent additional funding, they will be furloughed or temporarily laid off within a matter of weeks,” Morrell said.

He noted that some civilian employees’ contracts require 60 days’ notice of an upcoming furlough. As a result, Army employees whose paychecks won’t be covered after mid-February will begin getting notice in mid-December of an imminent furlough.

Morrell insisted that the plans “aren’t scare tactics” designed to prod Congress to move supplemental legislation. President Bush has insisted he will not accept legislation that has strings attached that include timelines for troop withdrawals from Iraq.

“These are the facts,” Morrell said. “We are not out to scare anybody. We are not out to issue propaganda. We are out to adequately fund our troops who are in battle right now, and we are only dealing with the facts here.”

The Defense Department considers the pending budget crisis “a very dire situation” and is taking all steps necessary to ensure its uniformed force doesn’t go wanting while operating in harm’s way, Morrell said. America’s troops on the battlefield “deserve to be treated right,” he said. “They deserve to have the money needed to support their operations.”

Related Articles:
Supplemental Bill Needed to Fund Anti-IED Effort, Director Says
Furloughs, Closings Possible Without Supplemental Funding, Gates Warns

[SandRat]

Demo-Weasels Cooking up Trouble again.

[Lancey Howard]

BUMP!

[freema]

Slandering and libeling them wasn’t enough

wondering whether or not to pull the trigger wasn’t enough,

and worrying about their families back home won’t be enough, either,

for jack murtha and all those little swollen pork bellies in Pennsylvania.

[Nervous Tick]

I’d rather they furlough the entire State Department, and use the savings from that to pay our military bills.

Draining the Clintoon Foggy Bottom swamp and saving money to boot. The very definition of WIN-WIN.

[doorgunner69]

On another thread, fools are laughing at the thought of the base civilians being laid off.

They equate them with the bureaucrats in DC.

[Don Corleone]

Will somebody...anybody...please tell those idiots that Bush is NOT on the ballot next November.

[Diogenesis]

[Strategerist]

I’d rather they furlough the entire State Department, and use the savings from that to pay our military bills.

It wouldn't be noticeable. DoD budget is 13 times bigger than State.

[freema]

http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2007-11-20T222932Z_01_N20600772_RTRIDST_0_IRAQ-USA-FUNDING-UPDATE-1.XML&pageNumber=0&imageid=∩=&sz=13&WTModLoc=InvArt-C1-ArticlePage3

WASHINGTON, Nov 20 (Reuters) - The Pentagon on Tuesday started shifting money between accounts to cover a shortfall caused by lawmakers’ refusal to approve war funds, but Democrats called the move a scare tactic meant to silence critics who want troops pulled from Iraq.

[freema]

November 20, 2007

“To change the political law, it doesn’t seem to me you need the military stability,” Mr. Murtha told reporters on Capitol Hill.

http://www.newsroomamerica.com/politics/story.php?id=400284

[jazusamo]

Didn’t think Fat A$$ murtha could stoop any lower...I was wrong!! He’s lost what marbles he had.

[Nervous Tick]

>> [furloughing State] wouldn’t be noticeable. DoD budget is 13 times bigger than State.

Very well. Then toss in Education, most of Commerce, much of Homeland Security, all of Health and Human Services, and so on.

[Girlene]

Shameful.

[Just A Nobody]

[Just A Nobody]

They might also tell them that he IS the Commander-in-Chief for the next 14 months...NOT THEM!

[Just A Nobody]

What an abject moron that thing is!

[kittymyrib]

I hope they cut thousands of civilian jobs from CA, NV, and every congressional district that the Quisling Democrats are depending upon for votes next year. And Sec. Gates should be very clear on who is to blame for them losing their jobs in the new year.
Chet Edwards, of TX Congressional Dist. 17, the home of Ft. Hood, has consistently voted with Nancy Pelosi for surrender dates in all the funding bills this year, including the one passed this week. Voters should let this dimpled hypocrite know that they will not support him in ‘08, no matter how many campaign ads he puts on Waco and College Station TV lying about how he supports the troops.

[2111USMC]

They are morons then.

It is civilians working at the Rock Island Arsenal here in the Quad Cities that have been busting their guts turning out up-armor kits for humvees. (They've very recently developed a new style plate that is exceeding everyones expectations.) These civilians are having a direct impact on the war effort right now.

[hdstmf]

On another thread, fools are laughing at the thought of the base civilians being laid off.
They equate them with the bureaucrats in DC.

Remember that we are talking about mostly civil service personnel. They will be paid retroactively when funds are ultimately available. Meantime it is just a paid vacation to them.

[gunner03]

> [furloughing State] wouldn’t be noticeable. DoD budget is 13 times bigger than State.

Very well. Then toss in Education, most of Commerce, much of Homeland Security, all of Health and Human Services, and so on.
I’d settle for Congress, they’re useless anyhow.