Pentagon faces cash crunch in October - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

Pentagon faces cash crunch in October

The Defense Department can expect problems with cash flow for continued military operations in the first few weeks of October while lawmakers scrutinize the almost $200 billion wartime supplemental funding request.

Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., the Senate Appropriations Committee chairman, said Wednesday that his panel won’t even start looking at the wartime spending budget until after the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1.

Pentagon officials have warned Congress that they will have used up all existing war funds by about the second week of October and would have to dip into money set aside for other programs if Congress does not act by then.

Byrd said he wants to hold hearings to look at the Bush administration’s pending $147 billion request for supplemental funds and an expected $50 billion increase, and to consider the requests for money in light of administration plans for continued operations.

“I assure the committee that we will not write a blank check for this war,” Byrd said.

Cash-flow problems could be even more severe if lawmakers are unable to pick up the pace on government funding bills. Byrd’s remarks came at a meeting in which the committee passed the $448.6 billion peacetime defense appropriations bill that is supposed to cover the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.

But the full Senate doesn’t appear able to take up the bill until the week of Sept. 24, which would leave just days to negotiate with the House on a compromise measure that could be passed and sent to President Bush for signing by midnight on Sept. 30.

“It is important we pass this bill prior to the start of the fiscal year,” said Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., the Appropriations Committee’s ranking Republican.

If Congress does not pass the peacetime defense budget by the start of the fiscal year, the Pentagon would not shut down. Under normal circumstances, a short-term funding bill would be enacted to continue programs at current spending levels without much disruption, although new programs could not be launched.

If a political stalemate prevents passage of the bill, civilian workers might be sent home, but uniformed service members around the world would still report to work and still be paid.

Military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan also would not end in October without a wartime spending bill; the Defense Department has authority to divert money from other programs to continue ongoing operations or even launch new ones. However, the programs sacrificed to cover war costs would suffer, a situation that Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, ranking Republican on the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee, said needs to be avoided if at all possible.