Posted on 06/06/2006 10:34:13 AM PDT by nckerr
A financial storm hit the Army and its largest post last month, with many programs still headed to a dry well at the end of June if Congress doesn't come up with a few more greenbacks and pass an emergency spending bill to cover the war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Richard Cody blamed the military's budget woes on Congress' failure so far to pass a $92.2 billion supplemental request by the Bush administratioAdvertisement n to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as he announced a four-step plan to curtail spending in the next five weeks.
Step 1 went into effect that day. Army units were told to stop ordering "noncritical spare parts and supplies, unless the organization or unit has a published deployment date," according to a memo from Cody obtained by the Stars & Stripes European Edition.
No goods were to be shipped "unless they are essential to support deployed units," the memo states, and supplies should be requisitioned for "what is necessary to accomplish assigned theater missions. All units should draw down on-hand inventories first."
The memo also canceled nonessential travel to training events and conferences.
Republicans have assured the military they will pass a supplemental spending bill when they return from their Memorial Day recess this week. However, the White House has threatened to veto any bill exceeding $92.2 billion. Conference negotiators had their work cut out for them after the Senate passed a bill totaling almost $109 billion.
Until they can reach an agreement, the Army's garrison fund, already $530 million in the hole, has been helping to finance the war fronts.
Touring the Mexico border Friday, U.S. Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock, said he was "gravely concerned about the severe budget shortages" faced by the military and Fort Hood, which falls under his district.
"This situation is becoming worse with each passing day, and is a matter of national security," Carter said.
"I have urged my colleagues who are negotiating this bill to work quickly on an emergency supplemental agreement so our troops will immediately receive the funding they need to sustain critical operations."
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, who is involved in the conference talks, did not respond to requests for comment.
Behind the politics, memos and number crunching are 800 contract employees at Fort Hood who say they are facing each day with the question: Is today the day the ax falls on me?
"Layoffs have been happening since the first of May – all month long," said one contractor, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Fearing her job could be cut even sooner, she also declined to allow a description of her work to be printed.
The uncertainty is likely to remain until Oct. 1, the start of the military's new fiscal year, she said. And even then, some are asking, will there be enough money allocated to bring them back if their jobs are indeed "suspended?"
"What you have not been told is that we are almost down to bare-bones staff. Everyone expects the doors to close the next time there is an announcement," the contractor said.
"The contract is now on a month-to-month basis instead of by the fiscal year. The June delivery order to carry (my) service to the soldier has only money for the employee labor, no monies for supplies to buy materials needed for the soldiers."
According to Cody's memo, the Army has a third set of cuts due June 15 with the "release" of all temporary civilian employees who are funded through the Army's operations and maintenance account, including personnel working at Army depots, the memo states.
The Army also will freeze contract awards and new task orders on existing contracts, and suspend the use of government purchase cards.
Cuts already have happened elsewhere.
In mid-May, DynCorp International, the Fort Hood area's largest employer, completed its layoff of some 400 employees, or 80 percent of its work force, involved in repairs to tanks, transporters and Humvees at the Charleston Naval Weapons Station.
DynCorp blamed the Army's scaling back of a large contract because of funding and an expected decrease in work.
The Army said in a statement it only extended part of its 1998 contract with DynCorp worth $176 million.
On the list of funding questions come June 30 at Fort Hood – with three months remaining in the fiscal year and a new round of deployments looming – is the contract that keeps operations running at the post's all-important railhead.
The well for that $4.5 million contract with Northrop Grumman first dried up on May 25. Money was found to keep the contractors on the job through the end of June, said Lt. Col. James Hutton, III Corps' spokesman.
The railhead contract itself is a small drop in a deep pot for Northrop Grumman. Army contracts made up 7 percent of the No. 2 defense contractor's record $30.7 billion earnings for 2005.
A Northrop Grumman spokesman declined to comment directly on the railhead contract; however, he said the company was anticipating "spending restrictions in a number of areas."
"We cannot speculate on the impact that these actions may or may not have on Northrop Grumman," he said.
Cell phones were cut and utility bills at III Corps as Fort Hood's $241 million garrison budget ran short in early May before $4 million was found to keep the lights on temporarily.
The cat-and-mouse game that played out in May to see who gets money and who doesn't likely will continue, Col. Tori Bruzese told the Herald in a telephone interview Friday.
"This is a drill that we will do to the end of the fiscal year," Bruzese said. "Every contract that's on Fort Hood, that the garrison does use to run the different services, are under review each and every month."
Those words offered little comfort to the contractors who say they are doing more with less and less.
"We are doing everything we can for our soldiers by using up our stock materials, but once that is gone, we will have to start turning our soldiers away," the contractor said.
"That is such a shame. That would be like going to the pharmacy for much-needed medication, and be told that due to budget woes, you will not receive the life-saving medicine you need. So sorry for you!"
The utilities should be paid - but a utility should think twice about cutting off service to a military facility. It endangers national security.
Geez, can't y'all give the critters a break? They already have their hands full ordering larger freezers, hitting police, and checking into treatment centers.
If you go and talk to Army and AF budget guys...they are both shaking their heads. The cost of the war is reaching into every single non-war budget issue now. Temp workers, replacement computers, software requirements, new fences, security contractors, etc. Most of the budget guys agree that if the war doesn't halt in 18 months...there will be another major base closure list...and it will be as big or bigger than the last one. This utility bill issue...is just a drop in the bucket. Watch them turn off AC this summer....just to make their basic bills.
They don't even trust the uniformed military, civil servants, or security cleared contractors, and licensed by the State of Texas, with handguns, you think they are going to let some rich klutz have at it with an M-1? (They have problems enough with young officer and NCOs mislaying their artillery and shooting up farmsteads off post with HE)
Bite your tongue. It gets hot in Central and South Central Texas (Ft. Hood, Ft. Sam Houston, Lackland AFB, Camp Bullis) and I work on one of those, I'd fry, or more likely stew in my own juices. Put me in a oven bag and have a "long pig" luau. :)
Its just not Ft Hood its everywhere. The same is true for Ft Huachuca. A lot of nervous people right now.
Ping for hometown perusal and fact finding
I live right outside Fort Hood (my backyard is the impact area fence line)
Will see if I can get some other facts for y'all
leo
Ping for hometown perusal and fact finding
I live right outside Fort Hood (my backyard is the impact area fence line)
Will see if I can get some other facts for y'all
leo
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