Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush said that funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan should be Congress's top priority when it returns to Washington next week, and he lashed out at Democrats for not acting on his spending request.

``Continued delay in funding our troops will soon begin to have a damaging impact on the operations of our military,'' Bush said in his weekly radio address today.

Congress, which returns to work Dec. 3 after a two-week recess, hasn't acted on a $50 billion down payment on the $190 billion Bush requested earlier this year because the legislation contains language calling for a troop withdrawal from Iraq. Senate Republicans have blocked majority Democrats from passing the legislation, and Bush has threatened to veto any measure that includes a withdrawal provision.

In response, Defense Secretary Robert Gates has directed the military service chiefs to start planning for the layoff of about 200,000 civilian employees and contractors by mid-February if Congress doesn't approve a supplemental funding request for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan before money runs out Dec. 14.

The threatened furlough is a first for the Pentagon, which in March and last year temporarily transferred money from the annual budget into wartime spending until Congress passed all of an emergency spending bill.

``It is time for the Congress to do its job and give our troops what they need to protect America,'' Bush said in his radio address.

Bush also called on Congress to update the foreign intelligence surveillance act, pass legislation to prevent middle-income families from being subject to higher levies under the alternative minimum tax, and to finish its work on annual spending bills.

So far, Congress has approved just one of the 12 annual appropriations bills that funds government operations. Democrats are seeking to end a budget fight with Bush by drafting a single catch-all measure that contains a smaller increase in domestic spending than they had previously demanded.

To contact the reporter on this story: Holly Rosenkrantz in Washington at hrosenkrantz@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: December 1, 2007 10:21 EST