US Department of Defense (DOD) Comptroller Mike McCord speaks during a news conference presenting the Defense Department's audit results at the Pentagon, Nov. 15, 2021 (DoD)

The Pentagon could be in quite a pickle if a government shutdown happens since it would majorly impact and impede the replacement of weapons sent to Ukraine as it would leave the Pentagon with only $1.6 billion to use, according to US Department of Defense (DOD) Comptroller Mike McCord.

In an interview for Bloomberg on Thursday, McCord revealed that the Pentagon has congressional authority to send arms and existing stockpiles worth $5 billion but has only $1.6 billion to sign contracts with the defense industry for replacing the stockpile domestically.

"We could easily have used that $1.6 billion already," he said, noting that with that option, the Pentagon prefers to save that amount as a result of no current clarity on whether Congress would assign any supplemental budget to the defense.

Such caution is needed to avoid the Ministry becoming "dead broke".

He expressed, "You want to be refilling the hole and sending that consistent demand signal of funding and contracts to industry to keep those lights going, and that is what we have already had to slow down because we have seen there is a real prospect of a shutdown."

Race against the deadline

This comes as lawmakers are putting in the effort to pass government funding legislation before the end of the month to avert a government shutdown, especially after the White House warned that national security and military servicemembers would be negatively impacted by it.

The Senate and House of Representatives are contemplating short-term funding bills to allow Congress more time to pass standard appropriations bills, even though discrepancies remain between the two chambers’ proposals.

The Senate proposal allocates more than $6 billion in aid for Ukraine, naturally opposed by some Republican lawmakers while the House proposal includes border security measures, something the Democrat-majority Senate is unlikely to approve.

Government funding is set to expire at the stroke of midnight on Saturday, September 30, marking the beginning of the new fiscal year on October 1. If Congress fails to enact legislation to renew funding by this deadline, the federal government will cease non-essential operations and services at midnight.