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Army: Pass supplemental or face layoffs

If Congress does not hurry up and pass the $190 billion wartime supplemental to the 2007 budget, the Army’s $27 billion operations and maintenance fund will run out by early February, which could lead to layoffs of civilian procurement specialists and consequent program delays, Army Secretary Pete Geren said at a hearing Thursday before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

“The procurement budget is separate so the procurement funds would continue to flow, but contract oversight, the civilians who do that and technology that supports it,” Geren said. “It would eventually start to impact the whole operation. You really can’t continue to move ahead with any type of contracting or major procurement without having both civilian and military oversight.”

Army officials said maintenance depots are likely to be hit first.

“Different kinds of programs are affected differently. The most immediate effect is going to be on the depots and civilian workers,” said Lt. Col. Gary Kolb, an Army spokesman.

Lawmakers asked the Army officials about the Nov. 1 Gansler report that recommended changes to Army contracting, including more acquisition courses and the creation of a contracting command.

“We already are implementing some of its recommendations, and in the next few months, we’ll be asking for legislative initiatives,” Geren said.

He declined to provide details.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey said the Army is crafting storage and usage plans for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles in decades to come.

After the war in Iraq, the Army will put thousands of the V-shaped, blast-deflecting MRAPs in storage as prepositioned stocks, Casey said.

The Pentagon plans to buy as many of 10,000 MRAPs for more than $20 billion by 2010.

Casey also said the legislative foundation of the National Guard should be rewritten by 2010 to reflect the organization’s key role in the Iraq conflict.

“We are reshaping legislation and policies put in place in the ’50s for a different kind of Guard and Reserve,” he said.

MORE: Read Geren’s testimony

MORE: Read Casey’s testimony