WASHINGTON, D.C. -- U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., offered an amendment Thursday to a bill to fund the government after March 27 that would increase Defense funding for operations and maintenance across the nation.

The proposal would impact Letterkenny Army Depot, according to a Toomey spokesman.

Letterkenny stands to lose two temporary and 49 long term contracts because of budget uncertainties.

After learning that Tobyhanna Army Depot plans to lay off 418 civilian contract employees in the coming weeks, Toomey authored the amendment "to provide a modest increase" to the Defense Department's account which helps pay for the salaries of these and other Army civilian contract employees involved in operations and maintenance. To ensure that the proposal is deficit-neutral, the Toomey amendment would offset the $60 million increase by diverting monies from the Pentagon biofuels programs.

"We can and should ensure our national security even at a time that we are reducing our defense spending," Sen. Toomey said. "I was very disturbed to learn about the planned layoff of hundreds of highly skilled civilian employees at Tobyhanna Army Depot. These workers perform vital maintenance on military equipment and play a significant role in our national security efforts." In a separate action, contractors at Letterkenny began on Jan. 18 to eliminate an estimated 244 positions by March 22 because a maintenance program was completed and the workers were no longer needed.


"In light of all of the waste, duplication, and lower priority spending in the federal government, I am confident that we can make more sensible cuts in spending than severely reducing the Army's operations and maintenance work," Toomey said. "One area for savings is the Defense Department biofuels program, which requires the taxpayer to grossly overpay for fuel. Given tightening budgets, it makes little sense to waste money on inefficient, overpriced energy sources when we could use those same funds to help support critical maintenance services for the warfighter."