Bush pressures Congress for war funds

WASHINGTON – President Bush warned Congress on Thursday that the Pentagon soon will have to start laying off civilian employees and reducing operations at U.S. military bases unless lawmakers send him an emergency war funding bill that does not mandate troop withdrawals from Iraq.

Escalating a dispute with Democratic lawmakers over his request for $196 billion in supplemental funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Bush complained that a delay in appropriating the money was jeopardizing important military efforts.

“The missions of this department are essential to saving Americans’ lives, and they are too important to be disrupted or delayed or put at risk,” Bush said at the Pentagon after he received more than two hours of briefings. “Pentagon officials have warned Congress that the continued delay in funding our troops will soon begin to have a damaging impact on the operations of this department.”

Congressional Democrats blame Bush for the delay because he will not accept a $50 billion funding bill that includes provisions to begin pulling combat troops out of Iraq and changing the U.S. military mission there. The House passed the bill earlier this month, but Republicans blocked it in the Senate.

Democrats contend that the administration is exaggerating threats of imminent layoffs, saying the Pentagon can draw from a $459 billion base budget that Congress has approved. Bush disputed that Thursday.