Pentagon Making ‘Emergency Plan’ to Keep War Going Without Additional Funds

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell says that the Defense Department is developing an “emergency plan” to keep the Afghan and Iraq Wars going without the additional funds the department has sought in the emergency war funding supplemental, which still hasn’t passed

“Needless to say, all of this is extraordinarily disruptive to the department,” Morrell insisted, “we’re sadly getting used to this fire drill.” The administration is seeking upwards of $33 billion in additional war funds in the emergency bill.

The House of Representatives passed war funding in a series of convoluted procedural votes, but made changes to the Senate version, sending it back to the Senate for reconciliation. The Senate has yet to debate the changes, but Sen. Reid says he expects them to do so before the August recess.

Yet the Defense Department had initially sought it before the July 4 recess, and Congressional leaders had said they expected to be able to deliver. Though in practice much of Congress is unwilling to oppose additional war funding under any circumstances, there have been a number of attempts to piggyback more and more domestic spending on the war bill, andit has delayed the process considerably.