Defense Communities 360 Headlines

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie signed two bills this week intended to make it easier for veterans to re-enter the civilian job market by granting them credit for experience gained in the military. One bill permits the state to waive the skill test requirement for obtaining a commercial driver’s license for veterans who have experience operating commercial vehicles in the military. The waiver would not apply to applicants seeking a license to drive a school bus or a commercial bus that transports more than 16 passengers …

The military services are rapidly becoming change agents as falling budgets and uncertain funding force them to find new ways to provide installation support with fewer resources. On Day Two of next month’s Defense Communities National Summit, each of the three services’ assistant secretaries for installations will update conference attendees on their latest thinking as they deal with drastic spending cuts due to sequestration and declines in force structure …

Civilian workers at the Navy’s shipyards should be exempt from furloughs because their jobs are critical to the service’s mission, Sean Stackley, assistant secretary for research, development and acquisition, said Wednesday. Forcing shipyard workers to take unpaid days off would disrupt the maintenance and modernization schedule for ships, Stackley told the Senate Armed Services’ Seapower Subcommittee. “I think everyone understands that shipyards are a special case in terms of direct impact on readiness,” he said. “The math states there is going to be more than a one-for-one impact if you furlough …

As a decision approaches by the federal government on the Spokane Tribe’s plan to build a casino and resort under the path of training flights from Fairchild Air Force Base in Eastern Washington, local leaders are taking a stronger stand against the project. In a letter sent last week to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers said the project should not be approved because of the potential for it to interfere with the installation’s mission. “I believe that in order to not be vulnerable to closure in another [BRAC] round, Fairchild must be able to continue to modernize and prevent local development that could be viewed as an encroachment …

During a Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee hearing Wednesday on the Air Force’s budget request, Chairman Dick Durbin (Ill.) acknowledged that he remains skeptical about the BRAC process after witnessing the previous five rounds. “Base closure commissions are supposed to take the politicians out of the process. I think they’ve replaced the politicians with other politicians,” said Durbin, the Senate’s number two Democrat. Durbin said he shared the concern of Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, that base closures do not produce sufficient savings …

The Navy will not be forced to ground four of its 10 air wings, as it had earlier warned, but instead it will drastically reduce flying hours. Flight hours are being slashed to the lowest level needed to maintain baseline safety standards and efficient aircraft maintenance, Rear Adm. Ted Branch said Monday. The cuts are expected to save the Navy $2 million per month per air wing, said Branch, who is responsible for six East Coast-based aircraft carriers and associated air wings …

A measure passed by the North Carolina House last week is designed to prevent wind energy projects from proceeding until the state and local governments have an opportunity to determine whether they would interfere with military training. HB 484 would require the developer to obtain a $3,500 state permit and to address the potential that the project encroaches on flight training or other military operations …

As long as there are reforms the Pentagon could carry out that are less politically delicate than closing military bases, lawmakers will find reasons to put off a new round of BRAC, according to a retired flag officer who has spent decades in Washington. DOD first needs to reduce its ranks of flag officers and other wasteful spending, Arnold Punaro, a retired major general in the Marine Corps, told CQ. For instance, the Joint Chiefs of Staff has added 1,000 employees in the past two years …

Senior defense officials have urged Congress to reverse the deep spending cuts imposed by sequestration during budget and oversight hearings this spring, but neither lawmakers nor the Pentagon are hopeful they can be averted. During a Senate Armed Services hearing on Tuesday, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) pointed out one reason why Republican defense hawks so far have failed to gain support from either party for legislation to undo the sequester. “I think one of the reasons that members of both parties are willing to allow this sequestration to proceed is a widespread belief that a profligate Department of Defense is unwilling to rein in runaway costs on underperforming programs …

The strategic review of defense priorities now under way at the Pentagon is not intended to recommend ways its budget can be trimmed to absorb $52 billion in sequester cuts next year, but almost certainly will influence decisions made by both lawmakers and the administration as to what spending categories will bear the most severe cuts. “The choices the president and secretary of defense make in response to the decision points identified in the review in the months thereafter will then inform our 2015 budget submission as well as how we execute our 2014 budget …