By LIZ SIDOTI

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) – Recognizing the strain on its troops, the Army will not rely as heavily on guardsmen and reservists for future rotations to Iraq, the secretary of the Army said Wednesday.

“We are not in a crisis mode. We’re in a very heavy concern mode,” said Francis J. Harvey, who has been in the job for just three months and was making his first appearance before Congress as secretary.

Testifying about President Bush’s proposed Army budget, Harvey told lawmakers that the major reconfiguration the Army is undergoing “will significantly reduce the stress on our force” by making time abroad and at home more predictable.

Still, he said that the remainder of 2005 will be “an especially challenging year” in part because recruitment is lagging.

Both Republicans and Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee pressed Harvey and Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, the Army’s chief of staff, about the stress on troops – and questioned whether the budget before them should include money for a permanent increase in active-duty troops.

On Monday, Secretary of State Donald H. Rumsfeld said the Pentagon was still weighing whether to permanently increase the Army’s ranks by 30,000, to a new total of 512,000. He said Army officials had told him there was “a good strong possibility” they wouldn’t need all 30,000 to be permanent.

Rep. Ike Skelton of Missouri, the committee’s top Democrat, told Harvey and Schoomaker that it was imperative to build up the active-duty Army to prevent having a “hollow Army” and to lessen the pressure on the Reserve and Guard.

“A permanent addition to the force is needed,” said Skelton, who has been pushing for such an increase for a decade. As for the Guard and Reserve, Skelton said: “You’re wearing ‘em out, secretary, that’s the bottom line.”

Harvey and Schoomaker said the supplemental war spending bill the White House is sending to Congress will include money to pay for the extra 20,000 troops the Army has already added.

Initially, Harvey testified that in the rotation scheduled to deploy this spring, “There will be no guardsmen and a limited number of reserves.”

But he quickly clarified his remarks, saying: “The exact number that is required for the next rotation has not been established” and an independent group soon would be studying exactly how many reservists would be needed. He said the group then would do the same for guardsmen.

After the hearing, Harvey stressed that many variables contribute to troop levels, including the status of Iraqi security forces, and he again backed off his earlier remark quantifying the troop levels.

“That’s probably an overstatement. I think they will be reduced – both the Guard and Reserve,” he told reporters. But he declined to say by just how much.

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On the Net:

Defense Department: http://www.defense.gov

House Armed Services Committee: http://www.house.gov/htbin