Lawmakers: Grow the Army

By Kate Brannen / June 17, 2009 at 5:00 AM

The House Armed Services Committee's just completed fiscal year 2010 defense authorization bill calls for an additional 30,000 increase in active-duty end strength for the Army in FY-11 and F-12.

In the meantime, with the Senate’s mark-up of the FY-10 budget request a week away, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), chairman of the Senate Armed Services airland subcommittee, told Army generals yesterday that he planned on mounting “a serious effort” to increase the service's active force end strength by 30,000 service members.

“There may be a requirement for us to have a temporary authorization of additional soldiers to fill some of the holes we have in our formations and to take the stress off the force in what is going to be a critical 12- to 18-month period," Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli told the subcommittee.

This may signal a change in the Army's tune. Just last month, Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey said a further increase in troops wasn't necessary.

Though he did not reject outright the idea of a temporary increase, Casey said what he's “not ready to sign up for just yet is whether we need to increase the active Army beyond 547,000,” he said.

“It comes down to it's about a billion dollars to have that increase, and that's a lot of money,” Casey said.

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