From a story we posted on Military.com this morning…
It’s like calling the auto parts store and ordering a new battery that you’re not sure you can pay for two months from now.
That’s the situation in which the Army finds itself given the funding delays imposed by Congress for the 2008 fiscal year that begins Monday.
Army Secretary Pete Geren said Sept. 27 he’s frustrated that Congress is continuing to dither on approving the money he needs to run the service, with some reports indicating lawmakers might not be able to approve a defense budget until January.
Instead, lawmakers plan to use a budgeting tool called a “continuing resolution” that will fund the overall government, including the Pentagon, at 2007 levels for only 45 days. That ambiguity hurts the Army’s ability to purchase needed equipment, such as vehicle repair parts.
“If we were to find ourselves in a situation where we had multiple 45-day [continuing resolutions], we can’t run an organization like the Army with that kind of predictability,” Geren told a group of defense reports at a breakfast meeting in Washington, D.C.
“We’ve got to be able to plan months out and years out,” he added.
The Senate has yet to agree to a Pentagon authorization bill or its version of the DoD appropriations bill. That could happen by mid-October but the House and Senate version have to be reconciled then agreed to before the cash can start flowing.
The clock is ticking, though, with the House set to recess for the year in late October and the Senate scheduled to recess in mid-November.
Geren explained that the funding uncertainty makes it nearly impossible to plan for upgrades and other initiatives that need some lead time. For example, it’s difficult to commit to payments for new Bradley Fighting Vehicle transmissions if the Army is uncertain whether it will have the funds to pay for them a couple months down the road.
“To have uncertainty hanging over the head of an organization that ‘will the next tranche of money come 45 days from now, 60 days from now?’ That’s hard to plan, it’s hard to invest,” Geren explained.
With the Army spending about $18 billion per month just to run the service, the lack of funding stability makes life hard for Army planners to pay the bills.
“If we do find ourselves in a 45-day type of a funding approach, that will make things hard for the Army that will make things expensive for the Army,” Geren said. “Much of our support force requires longer-term investments that you can’t turn on and turn off.”
– Christian
It’s just for show and happens EVERY year. The Defense Bill is ALWAYS delayed and there is ALWAYS “serious concern” about it.
“A decision from Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), aggravated by the disaster response to Hurricane Katrina, has been slow in coming. No date is assigned yet for bringing the defense authorization bill back to the floor.
b,
Just because it happens almost every year, doesn’t mean it’s not news when it does. I think it’s interesting to see the cat fight going on. Especially since Geren was once a congressman himself. Now the shoe’s on the other foot.
I think its funny talking money when you have contractors working in the motor pool making 175,000.00 a year when an e-4 who is trained as a mechanic is pulling guard duty in front of the chow hall.Start leting a lot of these contractors go and you can save tons of money to buy equipment and better recruiting tools(army strong sucks)
The White House should get their game together so the war can be funded through the defense authorization bill, rather than forcing these constant supplemental battles.
dear sir,
i am jioing army . this is my last will.army man’s best of the best.
While I agree with many of the sentiments expressed in other comments, the army is not alone in its budget crunch. The money for Iraq is largely borrowed money, and interest on the federal debt is becoming a larger percentage of the federal budget every year. While I thank the President for my tax breaks, the result is that we simply do not have the funds to throw into Iraq indefinitely, no matter how just the cause. We need a plan to get out, whether it’s now or ten years from now, publicly announced or made in secret, we need to plan so that the army can plan and budget accordingly.
Cut Army Hqs DC bureaucracy alone & in the DOD.
Combine units, missions like.
Privitize CONUS Army Food Services for bases
& PX.
Have HMOs run Walter Reed while VA runs the VA Benefits Prog only.
CUT civilan workforce.
Merge with the Marines in like units etc, missions.
Merge with USAF in Copter types & missions.
Save, save, save $$$$$$$$$.