Hill panels split over amount Defense can transfer to Army

The congressional defense panels are divided over how to handle the Pentagon's request to shift $9.7 billion in various military accounts to pay for the Army's immediate needs as the wartime supplemental spending bill continues to languish in Congress.

The Armed Services committees in the House and Senate have signed off on transferring the full amount, which was outlined in two separate reprogramming requests sent to Capitol Hill in May as part of a stopgap measure to keep money flowing to the Army in the event a supplemental is not enacted soon.

But the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee has agreed to allow the shift of only $7.3 billion, arguing the military does not need all the funding transferred immediately.

Senate defense appropriators, meanwhile, had not acted on the reprogramming request at presstime late Monday, but a spokesman for Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, said he expected the panel to take action "sometime soon."

All four panels must approve the request before the Pentagon can carry out the transfer. But with the panels in disagreement over the amount, the Defense Department will be allowed to shift only the lowest level of funding approved by the committees, according to congressional and defense sources.

House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman John Murtha, D-Pa., said his panel approved only a portion of the reprogramming request because he believes the Pentagon can get by without the full amount.

"We approved part of the [reprogramming]," but not all, Murtha said. "They don't need that much money that fast."

In late May, the Pentagon asked Congress for permission to transfer $9.7 billion from the other military services to the Army to cover its war costs -- a pre-emptive action in case the pending war supplemental is not enacted in the next several days.

Specifically, the first reprogramming action would transfer $5.7 million from Air Force and Navy military personnel accounts to the Army's military personnel account. The second would transfer $4 billion from the other services' operations and maintenance accounts and the Defense Department working capital fund to the Army and Special Operations Command O&M coffers.

House appropriators agreed to the initial $5.7 billion reprogramming request, but approved only $1.6 billion of the second request.

In a statement released May 28, the Pentagon said it asked Congress to act on the reprogramming by June 9, but warned that it would only buy the department a few weeks of funding. Pentagon officials have said the Army, which has been using its late-in-the-fiscal-year dollars to pay war costs, will not be able to make payroll for military personnel and civilian employees after June 15.

"Should Congress fail to pass the GWOT [global war on terror] supplemental appropriations legislation by mid-July, the department will have exhausted all military personnel and operations funding and will, at a minimum, be unable to make payroll for both military and civilian personnel throughout the department," the May 28 statement said.

Service members, including those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, and essential civilians would serve without pay, while nonessential civilian employees would be furloughed, the department said.

The Senate has approved a two-part supplemental spending package that includes $165 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for the rest of this fiscal year and the first several months of fiscal 2009. It also includes domestic spending, including increased veterans' benefits and an extension of unemployment insurance.

The White House has said that it will veto any legislation that includes unrelated domestic spending.

The House, which approved its version of the supplemental last month, is expected to act on the Senate bill this week. But House Democratic leaders intend to scale back the domestic spending approved by the Senate.