House appropriators critical of the war in Iraq plan to use the testimony of Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker on Friday to bolster their case for tying funds needed for the administration's surge of troops to Iraq to the readiness of forces stationed at home.

Their aim is to hold up money to pay for the 21,500-troop surge until military units in the United States can certify that they are fully manned, trained and equipped to fight any mission around the world.

Rep. John P. Murtha, D-Pa., one of the harshest war critics who now chairs the Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, held a series of closed hearings last month to learn how the Iraq war has strained military forces.

Murtha's subcommittee questioned a parade of witnesses last month to determine how much military stocks around the country have been depleted. Army commanders, including its officer in charge of equipping soldiers, disclosed that units in bases at home rarely have enough basic equipment such as Humvees and heavy machine guns to carry out daily training exercises.

"The question they asked us was what will the readiness of the rest of the Army be when we finish this surge," Lt. Gen. Stephen M. Speakes, the Army's chief of force development, told The Politico. "We asked them for immediate support of supplemental funding" to maintain unit readiness.
Army commanders have also told Congress that no stateside unit is now certified as fully ready for war.

The Senate is likely to bolster House efforts to make certain the troop surge is not carried out at the expense of readiness. In a strong letter to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., and the senior Republican, Sen. John McCain, Ariz., asked whether the surge was "placing an unacceptable strain on the Army's capability to provide deploying units with required equipment."