Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned Congress that if it did not quickly pass a supplemental spending bill he would have to lay off 200,000 civilian employees and contractors, terminate military contracts and partially shut-down U.S. military bases. Notices of lay-offs would be mailed in mid-December, Gates said.

Speaking to reporters in the Pentagon Nov. 15, he said, “There is a misperception that this department can continue funding our troops in the field for an indefinite period of time through accounting maneuvers …This is a serious misconception.” He said that the misperception likely comes from the President’s signing of the fiscal 2008 defense spending bill.

“Now that the regular appropriations bill has been enacted, we are left with no bridge fund and only our base budget to support normal war operations.

He added that his authority to reprogram funds was limited to about $3.6 billion, enough to cover one week’s costs of fighting the war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee the same day, Army Secretary Pete Geren estimated that in February about 100,000 civilian employees in the Army and about the same number of contractors would be furloughed if the bill is not passed. The layoffs would have a major impact on Army depots, he said. Secretary Geren said that the Army could use $27 billion in fiscal 2008 operations and maintenance accounts, but warned, "If the Army is asked to fund this without any type of bridge or without any additional resources, we're going to run through that $27 billion probably in mid-February."

“A large organization such as ours cannot turn on a dime. …It would have a dramatic effect. He added that the burden would “fall heavily on home-based troops and their families. Timely funding is absolutely essential. An organization of our size cannot live effectively with unpredictable funding.”

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said the Congress was "nickeling and diming" the military by not passing the supplemental funding. "Those troops are entitled to absolute support." However, Virginia Democrat Jim Webb dismissed suggestions that his party was "reluctant to fund people on the battlefield."

Houses Passes War Funding Bill. Measure Stalls in Senate

The House passed a $50 billion emergency spending bill Nov. 14, but would require that troops begin leaving Iraq in 30 days. The bill also sets a goal of ending combat operations by December 2008.

The next day, Senate Democrats and Republicans introduced competing measures that would fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through early next year.

The GOP measure would have provided $70 billion with no troop withdrawal language while the $50 billion Democratic bill mirrored the version passed by the House. Both bills failed to muster the required 60 votes needed to advance in the Senate.

Even if the Democratic measure had passed, President Bush had promised to veto it.

Where does that leave critical funding for the Pentagon?

After the Senate’s vote on Friday, Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, Chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee said the Democrats would offer a less restrictive version of the bill in December.

“There’s going to be a modification of the bridge fund,” said Sen. Levin. He said that one option being discussed is a bill that would still require a change of mission in Iraq but would not include specific dates.

However, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has declared that she would not bring another war funding bill to the floor this year.

Moderates from both sides of the aisle are in limbo as they try to find common ground.

“We should be sitting down and working on a compromise,” said Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine. The environment on Capitol Hill is “so partisan, so polarizing, and so poisonous, that it’s impeding our ability to solve the problems of our nation, with monumental consequences,” she said.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon will once again be forced to scramble to cover their bills.

Army Chief of Staff Provides Stark Assessment of Future

The next few decades will be a period of persistent conflict, and the U.S. Army will have to adapt to changing threats, the Army’s Chief of Staff said in testimony before a Senate committee last week.

“Global terrorism and extremist ideologies are a reality,” Gen. George W. Casey Jr. said before the Senate Armed Services Committee. “As I look to the future, I believe the next decades will be one of what I call persistent conflict. This a period of protracted confrontation among states, non-state and individual actors who are increasingly willing to use violence to accomplish their political and ideological ends.”

Though it has positive aspects, globalization is a trend that exacerbates protracted confrontation. “It has also created ‘have’ and ‘have-not’ conditions that are ripe for exploitation,” Gen. Casey said.

“Technology is another double-edged sword,” he said. “The same innovations that improve quality of life and education and livelihood are also used by extremists to export terror around the globe and manipulate our media.”

Demographic change also could contribute to instability. “The populations of lesser-developed nations are expected to double over the next 20 years,” the Chief said. “That will create a ‘youth bulge’ that is ripe for exploitation by terrorist groups, especially as the governments of these lesser-developed countries are unable to deal with large populations.”

Gen. Casey pointed to the global rise in demand for energy, water and food as these populations grow as a likely cause of competition and conflict. Climate change and natural disasters may cause humanitarian crises, population shifts and epidemic diseases, he said. The danger of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction will increase, he said, and there is the potential for catastrophic attack.

Finally, dangers arise from failed or failing states providing havens for extremist groups, the Army chief said.

None of these trends point to a specific threat, from a specific group, in a specific area, Gen. Casey said. “We know the Army will remain central to our national strategy to ensure our security in spite of these threatening trends,” he said.

The service is developing forces agile enough, with leadership able enough, and sustainment robust enough to ensure victory against any foe, Casey said. The force must operate with allies and with interagency partners and be able to handle the full spectrum of operations from humanitarian assistance to full-scale war, he added.

The Army is growing to a total of 547,000 soldiers over the next three years, and Gen. Casey called that a “good milestone.” In questioning, Casey said the service may need to expand beyond that number, but it would need additional funds to cover the higher costs. “Big and hollow is bad.”

Casey said the Army is “consuming” its readiness as “fast as we can build it.” He also said the service must restore the balance between active and reserve components. It also must rebuild the force’s depth and build needed capabilities for the future.

In his opening statement, Sen. Carl Levin D-Mich., and committee chairman, said, “The impact of the wars has affected the Army in many ways. In order to sustain the necessary higher readiness levels in our deployed forces, the readiness of our non-deployed forces has steadily declined. Equipment and people are worn out. Most of those non-deployed units are not ready to be deployed. Consequently, getting those units reset and fully equipped and trained for their rotation to Iraq or Afghanistan is that much more difficult - and risky. Getting those units equipped and trained for all potential conflicts, including high intensity combat, is virtually impossible, and is not being done. This nation faces substantially increased risk should these forces be required to respond to other, full-spectrum, requirements of the National Military Strategy. The surge of additional forces to Iraq earlier this year put even more pressure on an already strained readiness situation.”

Soldiers are the ultimate asymmetric advantage the United States has, Casey said, adding that training soldiers, providing programs and facilities for families, and caring for those wounded or hurt in service are paramount concerns. Preparing soldiers means providing the best equipment and most realistic training to the force, he said.

The general also said that resetting the force is crucial to success on the battlefields of the future. Army equipment has been used hard in the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, he said.

“Resetting our forces is critical to restoring readiness,” Casey said. “This year we will reset more than 130,000 pieces of equipment and over 200,000 soldiers.”

Finally, transforming the Army means more of a mindset change, as opposed to just changing wiring diagrams or equipment, Gen. Casey said. “Transformation is a journey, not a destination,” he said.

Army Secretary Addresses Health Care and Contracting During Hearing

Out of the calamities involving health care and contracting that befell the Army this year lay opportunities for the Congress and the service do things, Army Secretary Pete Geren told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

On health care, Secretary Geren cited the experiment beginning Nov. 26 to have a single physical for both Defense Department and Veterans Affairs Department. He told the committee that the Army immediately began making changes at Walter Reed Army Medical Center after news accounts in the Washington Post in February documented missteps in caring for soldiers who were on “out-patient” status after being treated for wounds or illnesses they had incurred while serving on active duty.

Geren said the Army established wounded warrior units throughout the United States and is overhauling the disability system.

On contracting, “We have learned – unfortunately, the hard way – that our contracting system was not up to the needs of our Army in this century.” With $111 billion in contracts for 2007, he said the Army accounted for 25 percent of all federal government contracts.

He said he has appointed a task force “to immediately stop the bleeding” involving contracts let in Kuwait and was moving to implement recommendations that included enlarging the size of the military and civilian acquisition force by 1,400 of a special panel headed by Jacques Gansler, a former Defense Department acquisition chief.

“We need to do a better job of developing professional acquisition and contracting officers, provide the resources, the training and valuing the invaluable role that these contracting officers provide to our government.”

On military families, Secretary Geren said “We are in uncharted waters, both for the soldiers and for the families” as the war in Afghanistan enters its seventh year and the war in Iraq nears five years. “It’s the longest conflict we’ve ever fought with an all-volunteer force by quite a long shot.” He also told the committee that more than half of the soldiers are married and more than half of the spouses work outside of the home.

“We moved $100 million out of our budget last summer into family programs. In ’08 in the supplemental, we moved $1.4 billion into family programs. We ask your help as we look to support families, that critical part of our all-volunteer force.”