DoD endangers personnel funds, lawmakers say

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DoD endangers personnel funds, lawmakers say
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Feb 27, 2008 12:35:35 EST

Members of the House subcommittee responsible for military personnel issues are concerned that the Bush administration is leaving the next president in a financial hole that could end up forcing large cuts in bonuses and special pays.

The problem, according to Rep. Susan Davis, D-Calif., who chairs the House armed services military personnel subcommittee, is that the Bush administration continues to put large portions of the personnel budget into the wartime supplemental funding bill, rather than the regular annual defense budget, including money for recruiting and retention incentives, advertising and other recruiting expenses.

Davis warned Tuesday that when military operations in Iraq wind down and the supplemental budget dries up, securing funding for the personnel programs in the peacetime defense budget will be difficult. There will be many competing demands, and by then many lawmakers will expect that an end to the fighting should lead to smaller budgets, she said.

One sign of the potential risk came last summer when the Army National Guard was forced to temporarily stop offering enlistment bonuses to new recruits when it ran out of money while waiting for Congress to approve a war supplemental, Davis said.

She expects the services to seek about $1.8 billion in emergency funding later this year to cover recruiting and retention costs through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. Congress is likely to provide the money, she said, because lawmakers do not want to put bonuses, special pays and recruitment advertising at risk.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/02/military_personnelbudget_022708w/