Bush: Troops could miss paychecks, civilians could be laid off

President Bush warned in his national radio address on Saturday that the Defense Department will not be able to pay troops next month and civilian Defense workers could face layoffs if Congress does not pass the 2008 emergency war supplemental bill soon.

In a related development, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that spiraling fuel costs have imposed an additional burden on the Defense budget. "Every time the price of oil goes up by $1 per barrel, it costs us about $130 million -- and frankly, my credit card limit is getting narrow on that," Gates told the Asia Security Summit last week.

In May, the Pentagon asked Congress for approval to transfer nearly $10 billion from Navy and Air Force budgets to pay soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan before the Army budget runs out in July.

In his radio address, Bush said if Congress does not act on the war supplemental "critical accounts at the Defense Department will soon run dry." He said civilian Defense employees could face temporary layoffs, and if Defense does not get its required funding by July, "the department will no longer be able to pay our troops -- including those serving in Afghanistan and Iraq."

The funding crunch Defense faces is "no exaggeration," said Army Lt. Col. Brian Maka, a Defense Department spokesman. He said the date Defense would run out of funds to pay troops depends on whether or not Congress approves the transfer. If Congress does not allow Defense to reprogram funds, paychecks to troops would stop as early as the middle of June. If the request is approved, troops would be paid through mid-July. Congress approved roughly $70 billion in 2008 supplemental funds for Defense last December. But the department still needs $102 billion out of the $189 billion it had requested then, Maka said.

"There are no layoffs imminent," said John Bray, a spokesman for Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. "The DoD has sufficient authority to fund civilians through late July even without the enactment of a supplemental."

The House and Senate passed supplemental military funding bills in May that included billions of dollars funds for domestic initiatives, such as a new GI bill for education. The Bush administration threatened to veto those measures. The bills still need to be resolved in conference and voted on by both the House and Senate before going to the president.

Eric Hilleman, deputy legislative director for the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, said he viewed Bush's latest comments on supplemental war funding as "positioning moves" and has no doubt that Congress will provide Defense with the funds it needs, along with the new GI bill.

Hilleman said the bill -- which would provide veterans with tuition equal to the highest rate charged by a state school -- has strong bipartisan support. "You cannot send troops off to war and not take care of them when they come home," he said.