Promised Army funds tied up in Congress

Promised Army funds tied up in Congress
By Matt Millham, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Saturday, November 3, 2007

It will probably be several months before families in Europe start to see anything of substance come out of the Army Family Covenant, which Army leaders started to roll out at garrisons around the world more than two weeks ago.

The reasons for that are myriad.

First, the $1.4 billion the Army has pledged for the covenant — a pledge to boost the Army’s existing programs to improve the quality of life for families — is mostly tied up in the Iraq and Afghanistan supplemental war funding request, and partly in the Army’s annual budget request. Neither the budget, part of the annual Defense spending bill, nor the supplemental have passed Congress.

When they do, there’s no guarantee the money for the Army Family Covenant will be there. Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Army chief of staff, said he is optimistic the money will be approved.

Of the covenant, Casey said last week that, “without the resources, it’s just a piece of paper.”

Second, the Army announced the covenant without telling its major commands that millions of dollars in additional funding were coming their way.


Rest of article at: http://stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=50000