Pentagon facing cash crunch in October

Above: Soldiers from the 2nd Infantry Division launch a mortar against insurgent postions in the Diyala River valley south of Baqubah last week.

The Defense Department can expect problems with cash flow for continued military operations in the first few weeks of October while lawmakers scrutinize the almost $200 billion wartime supplemental funding request.

Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., the Senate Appropriations Committee chairman, said Wednesday that his panel won’t even start looking at the wartime spending budget until after the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1.

Pentagon officials have warned Congress that they will have used up all existing war funds by about the second week of October and would have to dip into money set aside for other programs if Congress does not act by then....

Cash-flow problems could be even more severe if lawmakers are unable to pick up the pace on government funding bills. Byrd’s remarks came at a meeting in which the committee passed the $448.6 billion peacetime defense appropriations bill that is supposed to cover the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.

But the full Senate doesn’t appear able to take up the bill until the week of Sept. 24, which would leave just days to negotiate with the House on a compromise measure that could be passed and sent to President Bush for signing by midnight on Sept. 30.

Read the rest at Army Times

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