Army readiness money will run out in July

The Army’s force readiness budget for 2017 will run out this summer if Congress extends a continuing resolution (CR) past April.

Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Dan Allyn said Wednesday that the Army won’t receive $4 billion budgeted in 2017 for “direct readiness deliverables” if a CR is extended, Defense News reported.

“We are going to run out of money in mid-July on the current spending, and when that happens all the readiness gains that we’ve been building for two-and-a-half years are going to start that tip down,” Allyn said at a conference.

{mosads}The dwindling money would mean an inability to start hundreds of new programs, triggering delays to modernization. 

The limited modernization budgeted in 2017 is already “very prioritized,” he said, according to Defense News. 

“We have prioritized that money so when it doesn’t come, it’s like a double hit,” Allyn said. “It’s like a punch to the belly and a roundhouse to the face.” 

The CR — which funds the government at 2016 levels — will expire on April 28. There is a chance, however, that it could extend to the end of the fiscal year.