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Lack of Supplemental Funding Poses Problems for Pentagon
DEFENSE.gov (AMERICAN FORCES PRESS SERVICE) ^ | July 14, 2010 | Jim Garamone

Posted on 07/16/2010 12:33:11 AM PDT by Cindy

NOTE The following text is a quote:

Lack of Supplemental Funding Poses Problems for Pentagon Jim Garamone American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, July 14, 2010 – Because Congress has yet to pass a supplemental funding bill, the Defense Department must start taking measures to ensure uninterrupted war operations, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said today. Video

If Congress doesn’t act on the fiscal 2010 request for supplemental war funding, Defense Department employees may not get paid, Morrell said during a news conference.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates is disappointed that Congress did not pass the supplemental spending bill before its Fourth of July break, Morrell told reporters.

“He’s very concerned about the predicament that puts us in,” he said. “And in order to assure that war operations are not interrupted, the services will now have to begin cash-flowing operating costs for war activities using their base budgets.” This means that the services will begin borrowing money from fourth-quarter accounts to pay for current obligations, but even that won’t be enough, he added.

“We project that certain Army and Marine Corps accounts will run dry in August,” Morrell said. “So we urgently need Congress to pass the supplemental before members leave town for the next break in August.”

In the meantime, he added, the department is obligated to begin planning what to do if Congress does not pass the spending measure. “Needless to say, all of this is extraordinarily disruptive to the department,” he said. This is not the first time this has happened, Morrell said. “While we have faced this circumstance in years past, the situation we find ourselves in this year is much more difficult, because it comes so late in the fiscal year,” he explained. The fiscal year ends Sept. 30.

“The department has a supreme obligation to protect this nation and support the hundreds of thousands of personnel that are deployed in harm’s way,” Morrell said. “We will take every step possible to fulfill these obligations in the months ahead until this matter is settled in Washington.

“It may involve asking a lot of hard-working people in this department to report to duty without an ability to pay them, or other extreme measures we would rather avoid,” he continued. “But we will get the job done, including in Iraq and Afghanistan and wherever else we operate around the world.”

Related Sites: Transcript


TOPICS: Extended News; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: army; congress; democrats; marines; military; obama; obamaeconomy; obamapriorities; usarmy; usmarines; usmilitary

1 posted on 07/16/2010 12:33:14 AM PDT by Cindy
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Transcript:
http://www.defense.gov/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=4652


2 posted on 07/16/2010 12:33:56 AM PDT by Cindy
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SNIPPET from post no. 1:

""We project that certain Army and Marine Corps accounts will run dry in August," Morrell said. "So we urgently need Congress to pass the supplemental before members leave town for the next break in August.""

3 posted on 07/16/2010 12:48:22 AM PDT by Cindy
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To: Cindy

This is the untold story of the Obama Administration. On paper they increased the defense budget by a small percentage to look hawkish. At the same time they have not asked for as much supplemental spending to fund operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.


4 posted on 07/16/2010 1:14:57 AM PDT by USNBandit (sarcasm engaged at all times)
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To: Cindy
“We project that certain Army and Marine Corps accounts will run dry in August,” Morrell said. “So we urgently need Congress to pass the supplemental before members leave town for the next break in August.”

We probably have the most corrupt, misguided, and irresponsible congress in the history of our country! The congress is focusing on its own socialist agenda against the will of the people they are supposed to represent. I suppose that they know better than the taxpayers. How do they justify their out-of-control tax and spend insanity?

5 posted on 07/16/2010 3:31:11 AM PDT by olezip
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Quote:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2553424/posts

Unilateral Disarmament (Oliver North)
Fox News ^ | July 15, 2010 | Col. Oliver North
Posted on July 15, 2010 5:00:34 PM PDT by jazusamo

Washington, D.C. — While President Obama golfs his way through the Gulf Coast’s oil-drenched environmental calamity, another crisis is looming across the Potomac. America’s military, in harm’s way in a two-front war, is about to get staggered by a double-whammy below the belt. Unfortunately for those who wear our nation’s uniform, the commander in chief and his cronies in Congress are throwing the punches.

The first blow will land in the next two weeks unless Sen. Harry Reid’s Senate and Nancy Pelosi’s House of Representatives can get their act together to pass a supplemental appropriations bill to fund combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. In May, while proselytizing for homosexuals in our military, Defense Secretary Robert Gates gently reminded the Congressional Armed Services Committees that he needed the appropriation by Memorial Day. They ignored him.

Last month, Secretary Gates went again and told them the funds had to be approved before the Independence Day recess or the Pentagon would have to start doing “stupid things” — like shifting funds within the overall Defense Department budget just to keep the troops in the field re-supplied with beans, bullets and bandages. Once again Congress, taking their cue from Obama’s virtual silence on the matter, did nothing.

On July 13, Gates went up to Capitol Hill again, urging the solons to break the deadlock before the House recesses for “campaign season” at the end of the month. The defense secretary warned without action by then, he will have to start cancelling contracts on everything from weapons and equipment repairs to ammunition and fuel purchases in order to pay the troops. Not exactly what a soldier, sailor, airman, Guardsmen or Marine needs to hear in the middle of Afghanistan’s “fighting season.”

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


6 posted on 07/16/2010 3:31:45 AM PDT by Cindy
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To: Cindy

It appears to me the DemoRATS are setting up a no win, back-to-the-wall for the Republicans with purpose to force a vote in their favor containing something the Dems want that is going to ride on the military spending authorization.

Probably Cap & Trade.


7 posted on 07/16/2010 6:36:16 AM PDT by rockinqsranch (Liberalism draws criminals as excrement draws flies. Liberals are only good for bait.)
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