Lacking needed funds, Army begins to cut back spending

[The Straight Story]

Lacking needed funds, Army begins to cut back spending

By Megan Scully, CongressDaily
With House and Senate negotiations on the fiscal 2006 emergency supplemental spending bill still unresolved, the Army has started pinching pennies to make its funding for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan last until at least early July.

The plan, according to an internal e-mail from Army Vice Chief of Staff Richard Cody, is to gradually restrict spending over the next few weeks, with options growing as dire as suspending recruitment efforts and postponing promotions if Congress does not send the supplemental to President Bush for signing before the July 4 congressional recess.

"These are painful actions but they are absolutely necessary in order to continue operations during the month of June," Cody wrote in an e-mail circulated last week, a copy of which was obtained by CongressDaily. "This measured response will provide appropriate controls on our spending of resources and will minimize the impact on our mission."

Resources, he said, should be spent on the "highest priority missions." The service's operations and maintenance accounts for fiscal 2006 now stand at $5.6 billion, not including any budgetary reprogramming efforts. The Army expects to receive more than $36 billion out of the $92 billion-plus spending package for military operations and hurricane recovery efforts.

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