Geren Says Army Funding Crunch Coming

[unhappycamper]

Geren Says Army Funding Crunch Coming
Military.com | By Christian Lowe | September 28, 2007


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 , 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.

~snip~

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.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,150741,00.html

[Mythsaje]

1. Send Halliburton and Exxon the bill...

I'm sure they'd be glad to pitch in.