US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday that the deadlock between the White House and Congress over a spending bill for the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan has forced the US Army to slash costs in order to continue funding the war effort, according to dpa. The Army has scaled back funds for supplies, contracts, hiring personnel and other programmes in order to shift the money to combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, Gates said. "The disruption to the (Defence Department) and programmes here at home, in order to fully sustain the troops abroad, and particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan, has a growing impact here at home," Gates said in testimony before a Senate budget committee. The Democratic-controlled Congress and President George W Bush have been in a stalemate since Bush on May 1 vetoed a 124-billion- dollar spending bill for Iraq and Afghanistan because the Democrats including pullout dates in the measure. Bush has refused to endorse any deadlines for withdrawing US troops from Iraq. Negotiations between the White House and top Democratic lawmakers have so far failed to produce a breakthrough. Gates said 1.6 billion dollars has already been transferred from the Navy and Air Force to the Army, and the Pentagon was seeking congressional approval to shift more funds. Gates said it was possible to sustain the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan by transferring money until July, but that would cause severe problems in the Pentagon. "We could probably fund the war into July, but I would tell you, the impact On the Department of Defense in terms of disruption and cancelled contracts and programmes would be huge if we had to do that," he said.
