8th Army readies budget-cut plan

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8th Army readies budget-cut plan
By Jimmy Norris, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Friday, December 7, 2007

SEOUL — With the 2008 war funding still unresolved in Congress, the 8th U.S. Army has submitted a plan for proposed budget and personnel cuts.

Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Richard Cody ordered commanders to figure out their weekly costs of minimum essential operations and to develop plans to use soldiers to replace civilians and contractors who might have to be laid off around Feb. 23, according to The Associated Press.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned in a speech last week in Texas that as many as 100,000 civilians and 100,000 contractors could be laid off, according to AP.

Eighth Army spokesman Lt. Col. Brodrick Bailey refused to provide any details on the command’s plan Wednesday, including how many, if any, civilians and contractors might be laid off if the funding doesn’t come through.

“The information submitted is pre-decisional so it would not be prudent to give those details now,” Bailey wrote in an e-mail on Wednesday. He also declined to state what his command’s estimate was for maintaining essential operations.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=50784