Game of Chicken

According to news reports today, many government and contract employees of the Army and Marine Corps will begin learning soon whether they could be laid off in early 2008 because Congress has failed to pass a war spending bill for the new fiscal year. That’s because the Department of Defense is paying for the war out of the services’ baseline budget operations and maintenance accounts, which also cover a large portion of base operations and civilian employee salaries. The notices apparently will be in the form of an “informational” letter, and not a furlough notice. Now starts the game of “chicken” between Congress and the administration, right on top of the holiday season.