Pentagon Warns of Civilian Layoffs If Congress Delays War Funding

Murtha has led the charge before. Two years ago he called for a complete troop withdrawal in six months, and in February he proposed a plan to fund the war but to attach so many strings to troop deployments that troop levels would have to be lowered. Most recently, he offered a plan to fund the war with a surtax. Each time, he has failed.

The administration showed no sign of bending to the Democrats' latest demands.

"It is best for our troops in harm's way to be funded without strings, to be funded free of whatever policy restrictions Congress wishes to impose," Morrell said.

The Pentagon yesterday proposed shifting $3.7 billion from Navy and Air Force payrolls and $800 million from capital funds to bolster depleted Army and Marine Corps budgets and sustain roadside-bomb defense operations. But that sum would keep the Army afloat only through mid-February and the Marines through mid-March, Morrell said.

This spring, the Pentagon voiced alarm about troop funding but did not raise the possibility of large-scale layoffs of civilians and contractors. Morrell said that a $70 billion bridge fund existed then and the political climate was different.

"It's not at all clear that the Congress is prepared to pass a supplemental," Morrell said. "We find ourselves in a more precarious situation."

The Pentagon, therefore, has started planning for the possibility that the Army and the Marine Corps will exhaust their operations and maintenance budgets. In the past two weeks, those budgets have been used to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which cost about $10.5 billion a month.

Under current budget rules, the Defense Department can shuffle only $3.7 billion a year without seeking congressional approval. Morrell said that shows the department has already exhausted its options, but Democratic congressional aides said that a request from the Pentagon for additional transfer authority would almost certainly be approved. The goal, said one leadership aide, is to keep the administration on a short leash.

"We could ask Congress to reprogram," Morrell said, "but all that would do would delay the pain a little longer. . . . Going up to ask permission to reprogram would buy you a week or two at a time."